Star Trek Voyager Elite Force Combat Evolved
by Ben Griggs
Summary: Set after Halo 3, the U.S.S. Voyager finds the Chiefs ship and takes him aboard and he finds a new place as part of Voyager's security force. Finished! If I get good reviews I'll write one with Elite Force II. See my profile for legal stuff.
1. Chapter 1 Something Strange

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force Combat Evolved

This story takes place just before the events of Star Trek Elite Force I and right after Halo 3. 7 of 9 detects something odd from Astrometrics and asks the captain to come down and take a look.

Chapter 1: Something strange

Captain Janeway walked into Astrometrics looked up and said "What do you have for me 7?"

"An unusual phenomenon Captain, it appeared as a rupture in space-time, fluctuated as if something was coming through then collapsed. Afterwards I ran a detailed scan and I found this." Said 7 of 9

Pressing some buttons she isolated a piece of debris near where the anomaly had been.

"This appears to be a ship of some kind or rather part of it anyway. I'm not detecting any life support or reactor emissions, although there is a power signature on board I cannot identify it."

"How far away is it?"

"Approximately one day's journey at warp 5."

"Sounds interesting send the coordinates to the helm. Astrometrics to bridge, helm set a course for the coordinates you will be receiving."

As 7 of 9 worked the controls the helm officer replied "Aye Captain receiving coordinates now."

"Engage at warp 5."

A day later they arrived at they're destination. Ensign Kim ran several scans then said "Captain, I'm not sure but I think I'm reading a life sign on the vessel."

"I thought you said there was no life support."

"Yes, Captain but, if my sensor readings are correct I believe they may be in some sort of stasis."

"Can you get a lock on him?"

"No, he must be in a stasis or cryo chamber."

"I guess we'll do it the old fashioned way. Tuvok, Paris and Kim, go over there and see if you can't revive this person."

"Aye sir." Said Tuvok

The three men entered a turbolift and went to a transporter room. Tuvok got some environmental suits out and the team put them on as there was no air on the other ship. When they were on the transporter pad Tuvok said "Energize."


	2. Chapter 2 The Chief

Chapter 2: The Chief

The three men materialized in a corridor on the now dormant vessel. "Activate gravity boots." Said Tuvok.

"Mr. Kim can you localize the life sign?"

"Yes, about 30 meters this way, I'm also picking up the power signature I detected on Voyager."

The away team went down the corridor and noticed a sign "Cryo 1"

Pointing down the corridor Kim said "The life signs are in this direction."

"Very well, let's move on." Said Tuvok

They proceeded down the corridor and came to a cylindrical cryogenic machine. In it was a being in what looked like green armor.

"Tuvok to Voyager, we've found a cryotube, there appears to be a person inside and the life signs read as human."

"Acknowledged, can you thaw him out?" asked Janeway

Kim said "I wouldn't recommend it we don't know if the suit he's wearing has been compromised or not I recommend beaming the entire thing into cargo bay one."

"Very well, standby."

As the cryo chamber disappeared Cortana choose that moment to appear.

"Who are you and what have you done with the Chief?"

Surprised the away team drew their weapons looking for the source of the voice.

Cortana sighed "Down here."

Kim looked down at a pedestal where a holographic woman was standing. "Commander, over here." He said

"I'm Ensign Kim of the Starship Voyager, we're investigating the wreckage."

"I'm Cortana an Artificial Intelligence. Now what have you done with the Chief?" she asked.

"We transported him to our ship to see if we can thaw him out."

"Ok…..if you'll look down about half a meter you'll see a slot for a computer chip in 30 seconds take it out and beam back to your ship. Oh and grab the weapon next to the cryotube. The Chief will want that."

"Tuvok to Voyager, we've made contact with an artificial intelligence named Cortana she seems familiar with the person in the cryotube. We've also recovered what appears to be a weapon of some sort."

"Acknowledged."

"Ok." Kim deactivated his gravity boots and pushed off toward where the weapon was stowed. He pulled it off the wall and looked at it. There was a screen with the number "32" on it.

"Tuvok take a look at this."

Kim handed the gun to Tuvok and went back to the holographic pedestal and took the chip out.

"Three to beam up."


	3. Chapter 3 Introductions

Chapter 3 Introductions

With the away team back on Voyager B'Elanna took a look at the chip to see if it was compatible with Voyager's systems.

"It looks similar to an isoliniar processing chip. You mentioned she used a holographic pedestal let's take it to sickbay, she may know a few things about our guest."

She inserted the chip into a slot and Cortana downloaded herself into the computer.

"Ahhhhh. Lots of room in here." She accessed the holographic controls and projected herself into the room. "Amazing." She said

"Hello, I'm Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres I'm the Chief Engineer of the Starship Voyager."

"Cortana, I'd like to speak with your Captain."

"Of course she's on her way."

Just as she finished Captain Janeway walked in.

"Captain Janeway I presume."

"Yes."

"Cortana of the United Nations Space Command."

"You seem to know who I am already. Perhaps you can tell us how to revive the occupant of the cryotube."

"Not a problem, bring the cryotube to sickbay."

"Janeway to transporter room 1, beam the cryotube to sickbay."

"Acknowledged initiating transport."

The cryotube appeared on the floor in the middle of the room. The doctor crouched next to it with a medical tricorder. "I'm not detecting anything wrong, we can thaw him out but I recommend we get him out of his armor."

Captain Janeway nodded to Cortana who knelt next to the cryotube and pressed a few buttons. The cryotube opened and the Chief stood up and stepped out. "Cortana how long was I-"he paused examining his new surroundings. "Chief it's me Cortana." She said.

"Where am I?"

"You're on the Starship Voyager, I'm Captain Janeway, this is B'Elanna Torres my chief Engineer and this is the doctor."

"I'm Master Chief SPARTAN 117. But Chief will suffice"

Just then Tuvok walked in.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Tuvok my chief of security."

"Greetings."

The Chief nodded.

"Where's Cortana?"

"I'm here."

He turned around and saw a woman who looked just like Dr. Halsey. He looked surprised.

"They have amazing holographic technology Chief."

"Indeed they do."

"Captain I'm not familiar with this vessel and you're not wearing the standard UNSC uniform, would you mind explaining how I came to be here."

"I think I can come with me."

They approached the door and the Captain turned, "Cortana you will have to either move back into the system or stay here-"

"Captain, she can use my mobile emitter for now, I'm not needed outside sickbay. When you're done though I'd like the Chief to return here so I can run some scans." Said the Doctor

"Very well Doctor." Said Janeway

The Doctor handed his mobile emitter to Cortana "This will allow you to move about the ship in holographic form. Just attach it to your arm."

"Thank you Doctor."

They all departed sickbay and made their way to a turbolift. They got inside and Captain Janeway said "Astrometrics."

They arrived at Astrometrics to find 7 of 9 hard at work.

"Captain." She said

"7 this is Master Chief SPARTAN 117, he was the occupant of the ship we detected. He was wondering if you could explain how he got here."

"Of course, approximately 24 hours ago we detected a rupture in space-time, it fluctuated then collapsed, I then ran a detailed scan of the area and found this piece of debris. We beamed an away team onboard where we discovered you and your AI Cortana."

"Interesting." Said the Chief.

"Captain if it's alright with you I'd like to get some sleep."

"That's a good idea Chief; I'll inform the Captain of where we come from."

"Very well you can return to sickbay while we arrange some quarters for you."

"Yes sir."

The Chief returned to sickbay and took his armor off, and put some regular clothes on. "Chief please lie down I need to run some scans" said the Doctor

The Chief laid down on a biobed. He was fast asleep in five seconds.


	4. Chapter 4 Ideas and Suggestions

Chapter 4

Ideas and suggestions

Captain's Log Stardate 53852.5 It's been almost a month since we've rescued the Master Chief. He has chosen to take a position in security and I've allowed Cortana to fully interface with our computer. With her help, computer speed has been tripled, allowing for excellent maneuverability. Due to the Chief's heavy military background our security forces' training has been increased. I invited the Chief to attend one of our annual security briefings and he mentioned an interesting idea.

**Briefing room Deck 1 USS Voyager**

"I've been looking into your ships historical records. I saw a reference for something called the MACO's or Military Assault Command. The MACO's were disbanded in favor of Starfleet security forces. While I'm sure that your security forces can fight in ship corridors just fine, I think it would be a good idea to have a team of MACO's for dangerous situations. Tuvok and I have already come up with scenarios that we can use in your holodeck as tryouts for the team." Said the Chief

"I think it's a good idea, Tuvok, Chief you have my authorization we'll begin tryouts tomorrow. Now on to other subjects. Seven have you had any progress with your Infinity Modulator weapon?" asked the Captain

"We have several obstacles in front of us but with the Chief's and Cortana's assistance I believe I can perfect the weapon." Replied Seven

"Captain, I've been looking into your combat records concerning the encounters you've had with the Borg. I think a weapon that fires lead projectiles would be more effective but we would have to run several simulations in order to test the theory." Said Cortana once again borrowing the mobile emitter from the Doctor.

"We can do that when we're done here if you'll give us the specs for one of your assault rifles we can use it on the holodeck in a Borg simulation." Said the Captain

"I've already downloaded the designs for the assault rifle and with your permission Captain I'd like to download the Halo data from my systems into the computer. It's a lot of data and I'm afraid I've been slowed down by the weight."

"Of course and I recognize the importance of the information so we'll put it under top secret files. Only the senior staff will have access to the material."

"Captain I believe I can enhance the security of those files with Borg encryption algorithms." Said Seven

"Get on it. I believe that is all for now, Tuvok you will give me the results of your tryouts by tomorrow evening."

"Aye Captain."

"Very well then, dismissed."


	5. Chapter 5 Tryouts

Chapter 5 Tryouts

**DECK 5 HOLODECK 1 BORG SIMUTLATION**

"Munro to Voyager, I've lost contact with the rest of my team I don't know where they are."

"Ensign Munro, we've located your teammates they are trapped in the tertiary power modulation chamber, rescue them at any cost."

"Ensign, this is the Chief we're beaming something over that might help you if the Borg adapt to your compression rifle."

"Aye sir."

The MA5C Assault rifle appeared next to him along with three clips of ammunition. He stowed the rifle in the transporter buffer on his belt, then he put the clips on his belt as well.

"Tertiary what?" he said to himself.

Looking around he saw five Borg one of which was working on a distribution node. He brought up the tactical info on his Tactical Eye Display or TED. After reviewing the data he raised his phaser rifle aimed not at the drone but the distribution node it was working on. He fired twice destroying the node and deactivating the drones and a force field he noticed as he stepped around a corner. He walked down a hallway and up a ramp. Going past some regeneration alcoves he looked into the room to his right and saw one of his teammates behind a force field.

He turned around and came face-to-face with a drone.

He froze.

The drone starred at him and turned to the distribution node on the wall next to him. Munro stepped away. He then saw a green force-field, turning back around he shot the distribution node which again deactivated the drones and the field.

He stepped through the field and went down a ramp. He saw a plasma filter next to a grating. From a safe distance he shot the filter which exploded. He crawled inside and climbed the ladder. Turning a corner he came to the end of the crawlway. Munro pushed on the end which fell out and crushed a Borg drone below him. He jumped down to the floor and spotted a lift. Munro stepped on the lift and pressed the button. The lift descended one level. He quickly shot the drone preparing to assimilate his teammate.

It was Rick Biessman.

"Munro! My savior hit that panel to release the field."

Just as Munro deactivated the field three drones beamed in.

Munro quickly shot two of them and was turning to target the last one when a burst from Biessman's rifle put it down.

"Let's get outta here." Said Rick

Munro nodded and took point. They proceeded down a hallway and around a corner when a Hazard team member was thrown into the wall. Another one was covering him but the Borg had adapted to his rifle. Munro put the drone down with two shots.

The standing team member knelt next to his wounded comrade.

"Thanks Munro, I'll get Odell back to the ship."

He tapped his combage and they both disappeared in dual flashes of blue light. Munro and Rick moved on down a narrow passage and into a circular platform. Rick spotted a blue force field on the other side.

"A blue force field? I don't see a disnode here, must have a special power source."

Munro spotted a lift and stepped on it.

"Uhhh I'd come with ya if I had an IMOD but what say I stay here and hold down the fort." He said as Munro descended the lift.

Five Borg beamed onto the platform below. Munro wasted no time in opening fire. However the last two had adapted to his phaser rifle so he quickly switched to the assault rifle and opened up it took half a clip to put both Borg down.

After he secured the rest of the area he spotted a grating nearby so he switched back to his phaser and blew it in. He then crawled in and proceeded down the ladder. Rick contacted him over the com.

"Hey Munro, if you're not back in five minutes I'm not going in after you! Hehehe"

Munro crawled through more small spaces and came out onto a ledge, looking up he saw several plasma filters circling a generator of some type. Backing up slightly he fired a single shot into the closest filter which promptly blew up along with the rest.

"Hey the force field's down, what the- Munro get back up here some Borg just beamed in and they're gaaaaarrrghghhhhhhhhhhh!!"

Munro hurried back up the ladder and onto the platform with the lift near it. Before he could get out of the crawl space five more Borg beamed in. switching back to the assault rifle he put down two drones, dropped the clip out of the rifle and reloaded smoothly. The next three went down from head shots.

Rifle up, he scanned the area as he got out of the confining space behind him. He again stepped onto the lift and pressed the button. It rose and he saw five more Borg on that level. He opened fire again, reloaded and fired again. All five went down from several 7.62mm slugs of lead.

He went through the hallway where the blue field had been and ran into a yellow one. Pressing the control panel nearby the field deactivated and he continued on.

After about five more minutes he ran into Chang who was wounded but still firing his rifle.

Chang beamed back to the ship and Munro continued on.

He approached the final area, looked around the corner and shot the distribution node which deactivated the drones and the field around a control consol, which also controlled another force field behind which were the rest of the team was being held.

He walked up to the control console, pressed a few buttons but the system refused to relese the force field.

"It's not working, we don't have time for this."

He pulled out his compression rifle and aimed at the console.

"Munro, wait! Don't!" Chell yelled but it was too late as the console exploded.


	6. Chapter 6 Dressing Down Ensigns

Chapter 6 Dressing down Ensigns

"I told you…" Chell said as the simulation disappeared.

Tuvok and the Chief walked in. "Mr. Munro your tactical approach was shall we say 'tactless'." Said Tuvok

"Alright, hazard team report to debrefing." Ordered the Chief.

The rest of the team walked out followed by the Chief. Munro approached Tuvok "Sir, if I may, how was I supposed to know the panel would explode?"

"That point is not relevant Mr. Munro." Tuvok responded as they began walking toward a turbolift. "A given situation is not as predictable as you might desire, your reckless descision has caused the death of you and your teammates, you have failed. Had you followed hazard team procedure you may have survived this simulation and achieved your mission objectives."

"Procedure…."

"Speak freely Ensign." He said as they got in the turbolife. "Deck 5 Hazard Operations."

"With all due respect sir, I don't think 'procedure' would have mattered. There wasn't any way I could have possibly rescued them." Munro said.

"Someday Mr. Munro, you will be called upon to do the immpossible, consider this to be your personal 'Kobiashi Maru'."

Suddenly Chakotay's voice came over the comm. "Red alert all hands to battle stations."

"Computer, reroute turbolift to the bridge."


	7. Chapter 7 Under Attack

Chapter 7 Under Attack

Munro and Tuvok reached the bridge, Tuvok took his station at tactical. Munro turned to Seven of Nine. "What happened?" he asked.

"We responded to a distress signal from a derilict vessel and it opened fire." She said

Captain Janeway turned to Tuvok "Tuvok, they don't respond to hails, maybe we need to send a clearer message. Target their weapons systems and disable them."

"Firing phasers. Direct hit, phasers had no discernable effect." The ship shook again. "Aft shields are down Captain, rerouting auxillary power to the shields."

Harry Kim spoke up "Captain, I'm getting reports of secondary EPS conduits on decks eight and nine rupturing, we're not going to survive another hit."

"Photon torpedoes, full spread." She commanded

"Torpedoes away." He said

Two torpedoes rang out, the first destroyed the shields of the vessel, and the second breached its hull and engine core. The subsequent explosion produced a shock wave that transported voyager to another region of space.

"Is everyone alright?" asked Commander Chakotay

"I am undamadged." Said Seven.

"What happened?"

"Captain, we seem to have been torn from normal space. I think we've just been pulled through some sort of iso-demensional rift." Harry said

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Aparently, here Captain. Sensors and most of Voyager's primary systems are offline. Until repairs are made, it may be difficult to ascertain excatly where here is." Tuvok said

* * *

Captain's Log Stardate 53854.7: Voyager was attacked by an unknown force and transported to some kind of starship graveyard, whereabouts unknown. The ship is heavily damaged, communication, propulsion and other systems are offline. Until repairs are done, we're utterly helpless, stranded.

* * *

"Tuvok, get damage control online, Harry find out what you can about those other ships and exactly where we are."

"Aye Captain."

Suddenly B'Elanna came over the comm. "Captain! There is a containment leak in engineering if we can't get it sealed we're going to have a warp core breach."

"Ensign Munro you're wearing a hazard suit, get down to engineering and help B'Elanna seal that leak, have the Chief meet you there." Janeway said.

"Aye sir." He turned and got into a turbolift, the door closed as he heard Paris at the helm "Captain we're drifting attempting to compensate with maneuvering thrusters."

"Deck 11 Engineering." Munro said to the computer.

"Turbolift controls malfuctioning. Initiate vocal command using manuel interface" Responded the computer.

Munro held down the button for deck 11 again and repeated his command. The turbolift roared to life and took him down into the depths of Voyager.


	8. Chapter 8 Unavoidable Delays

Chapter 8 Unavoidable Delays

The turbolift stopped somewhere around deck 6. He stepped onto the deck and tapped his combage. "Munro to the Chief."

"Chief here."

"Meet me outside engineering, there's a containment leak in engineering. The engineering crew needs our help to seal it."

"I'm on my way, what's your location?"

"Somewhere on deck 6, the turbolifts aren't working well. I may have to take the Jefferies tubes."

"Understood."

Munro proceeded down the hallway and around some corners. As he came around a corner he saw a wall conduit explode almost tossing a crew member down the hallway. The crewman got up a limped toward him.

"The EPS conduits are gonna blow! Hit that panel and bring up a containment field!" he said.

Munro waited until the crewman was past a bulkhead then pressed a button and a containment field went up.

"That was close. Where were you heading?"

"I need to take a turbolift to engineering."

"Well the aft turbolifts were the only ones working on this deck but they're behind the containment field." He tapped the console. "The explosion must have shorted out this console. I think there's an override somewhere on this deck but I'm not sure where."

"Thanks anyway."

Munro went down a corridor to his left. He passed a turbolift that was offline. As he got past it the door exploded. He went a little further and saw Chell and another crewman working on a relay. Chell looked up and said "Sorry Munro, the data shunt's been severed here everything down this way is shut off." An alarm beeped and the crewman said "Hey we're getting a power surge here."

"Munro, quick, hit that panel and shut off this relay."

He hit the panel.

"That was close."

"Chell I need to get this containment field down."

"There's an override in the Jefferies tube just down that corridor."

Going back the way he came, he climbed into the Jefferies tube. But about halfway down the ceiling collapsed. Turning back he stepped into the turbolift shaft with the blown out door and climbed up some stairs. Going into the Jefferies tube above that he crouch-walked until he came to the collapsed ceiling, hopping down to the level below he continued on. He came out of the tube and saw the override. Pressing it quickly he got back in the tube climbed over the debris and down the ladder to land once again on the deck. He went back to where Chell was still working and continued on.

Turning a corner he saw a turbolift ahead but it was still offline. So he went to his left and down several Jefferies tubes until he got to Deck 11. As he exited the tube he noticed that he was in a cargo bay and some hazardous material had spilled. He dropped onto a cargo container and hopped from one to the next until he came to a ladder. He climbed the ladder and activated the containment system, which drained the material. He again climbed down the ladder and exited the cargo bay.

He turned a corner and he saw the Chief was just arriving as well. B'Elanna was outside as well. "Munro what took you so long? We've got a warp core breach in progress you need to get in there and shut it down. There are two things you have to do so listen carefully, first, turn off the power relays on the main floor. Then go to the upper level and decouple the dilithium matrix."

Munro and the Chief moved to the door. The Chief already had his armor on. "Wait a minute Munro. You're going to need a helmet to get through that coolant leak." B'Elanna said.

"I've got one in my transporter buffer." Munro replied.

He tapped the buffer and a helmet appeared in his hands. They both entered engineering but there was a containment field up. As the door closed behind them B'Elanna said "Hurry guys, I'm not sure how much time you've got left!"

The field deactivated and the Chief went to the power relay station while Munro went to the upper level. "Chief, I just forgot you're going to need the access codes, go to the access code station." He went to the station which then displayed the power relay access codes. He went back to the relay station and turned them off. He then yelled to Munro "NOW!" and Munro decoupled the dilithium matrix. The computer came over the comm. with an automated message.

"Dilithium matrix decoupled. Warp core offline, core breach averted."

B'Elanna walked in. "Nice job Chief, Ensign, that was touch and go there for a little while."

"No problem Lieutenant." Said Munro.

With Munro back on the main floor he and the Chief walked out. As soon as they exited the AI Cortana came over the comm. "Intruder alert! All security and Hazard team personnel report to the loading dock!" The Chief and Munro looked at each other and both ran to the nearest turbolift and proceeded to the crisis…


	9. Chapter 9 Hazard Duty

Chapter 9 Hazard Duty

The turbolift with Munro and the Chief stopped and opened. Chang was on the other side, he noticed the two men, pulled out a hand phaser and said "Here Munro take this, Chief there is a rifle nearby you can use. Come on."

Munro and the Chief stepped out, they saw the Doctor in a corner treating an injured crewman, "If you need medical attention, just come back here." He said.

"Munro, Chief, over here." Said Lieutenant Foster.

"We're being invaded by some kind of pirates they're taking our supplies we have to stop them. There are two of them behind a barricade in there. They are launching energy grenades. See if you can eliminate them. Ready?"

The team nodded and the door opened. They rushed into an already heavy battle; the Chief took out one Malon on an upper scaffolding, while Munro took out a couple of Klingons on the main deck. The Chief then spotted the two pirates launching energy grenades; he took out a replicated fragmentation grenade and rolled it under them. The explosion took not only them but a few others as they beamed right into the explosion.

A few minutes later the loading dock was secured. Tuvok contacted Foster on the Comm. "Tuvok to Foster we're pinned down in cargo bay one. We require your immediate assistance."

Foster motioned for the Chief and Munro. "Chief, Munro, Tuvok needs help. Come with me."

They went up a lift and Munro spotted a line of phaser rifles he grabbed one and met with the Chief and Foster at the door to Cargo bay one. Foster pressed a button and they emerged onto an upper floor near a lift in the cargo bay. They saw Tuvok's team huddled behind some cargo containers. "Chief, Munro, take out any pirates you see from up here. I'll go to the lower floor and help Tuvok."

"Aye sir."

They both took out phaser rifles and crouched on the lift. Then Klingons started to beam in, lots of them. The Chief and Munro were only able to stem the tide with head shots. Soon the beam-ins stopped.

"Tuvok to Bridge, the intruders have been repeled."

"Good work, it seems our situation is worse than we thought Tuvok, you and the Chief report to the conference room." Replied Janeway

"Lt. Foster, have the team report to Hazard team operations."


	10. Chapter 10 Hazard Ops

Chapter 10- Hazard Ops

When the conference ended the Chief and Tuvok went to the Hazard operations briefing room where the entire team was assembled. They were standing in groups and talking, exchanging ideas about what was going on. When they walked in Munro noticed them and yelled "Attention on deck!"

The Chief nodded and said "As you were."

The Chief and Tuvok took up positions on opposite sides of a large display, Tuvok on the left the Chief on the right.

"Please be seated." Tuvok said

"I am certain that many of you are curious as to our situation. Voyager has been transported to a region of space we are not familiar with. It seems that many other disabled vessels are present here as well. We have detected an energy dampening field surrounding the area that is draining Voyager's systems of power. For the moment, we are trapped like the other ships and cannot escape."

"Like the Tarkanous Gravity Well. 247 ships have been lost there." Commented Chell

"Or the Bermuda Triangle…you know, back on Earth." Suggested Munro

"Perhaps. Our primary weapons and propulsion systems are offline at the moment. The Captian's current strategy is to find out as much as we can about our surroundings while we affect repairs." Tuvok continued

"So…what's the deal with our unwelcome visitors?" Biessman asked

"We do not have much information about them as of yet Mr. Biessman. They appear to be Scavengers of some sort, comprised of Klingons, Humans, and Malons. With only short-range sensors operational, we have been unable to locate their vessel since it departed. However, we have detected a vessel nearby. While sensors indicate no lifesigns, we have detected a functioning power source on board. Our hope is that their computer systems are still operational and contain information about this area. The Hazard team will transport onto this vessel and retrieve any files that are still intact." Tuvok said

"No lifesigns?" said Murphy

"Like a ghost ship…" remarked Chell

"Yea…BOO!!" said Biessman

"While your superstitous beliefs are quite illogical, Mr. Chell, caution is recommended. Our special operations expert the Master Chief will now brief you on your specific mission objectives. Chief."

"Alright, this is an information gathering mission. Minimal encounter probability. The Hazard Team will split into two squads. Alpha squad, my group, will beam into Control Room "A". Ensign Munro and Beta Squad will be transported to Control Room "B". Our objective is to have at least one of the teams locate a functioning terminal to extract any information we can and return to Voyager. In the unlikly case of hostlie encounters, the technician should be protected at all costs to ensure retrieval of this information. Any questions?"

"Sounds like a cakewalk." Said Biessman

"See the Quartermaster, Oviedo, in the Equipment Room. Gear up, then report to Transporter Room 1. Dismissed." Said the Chief

Ensign Munro got up after everyone had left and walked out the door to the left of the briefing room. As he entered the locker room he saw Biessman and Chang talking just outside the door.

"Man, data gathering…I was hoping for some action our first time out." stated Biessman

"Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." replied Chang

He then approached Chell and Telsia talking over by their lockers.

"I wonder how long those scavengers have been here." said Chell

"I don't know….i'm surprised they managed to survive this long. I wonder where their ship is." replied Telsia

"Chell." Munro said

"I sure hope they're right about that ship being abandond…" said Chell

"Telsia." Said Munro

"Hey, Alex. Nervous about the mission? We'll do fine I'm sure." She replied

Munro nodded and went around the corner. He saw Autsin and said "Chang"

"I don't know Alex; I have a bad feeling about this." He replied.

As Munro walked out of the locker room he saw Biessman just entering the armory. He followed and walked in just as Biessman commented on the Phaser Rifles. "Ho ho swweeeet."

Murno picked up a hand Phaser, Phaser rifle and Scavenger gun. The Quartermaster, Oviedo called him over. "Hey, Munro, make sure you try out the new sniper mode on the Phaser rifle. Those Scavenger guns might come in handy. They use dilithium crystal chips for a power source. Most ships use those crystals so you should be able to find more to power the gun; the second trigger on it fires the energy grenades- be carful with those."

Munro walked out of the armory and proceded to the transporter room. As he walked in he noticed that the Chief was already there on the pad waiting. He nodded to Munro as the rest of his team: Chang and Biessman; got on the transporter pad. "Energize." He said

With that command two starfleet officers and a SPARTAN beamed away. Munro and his team: Telsia and Chell; also got on the transporter pad. Telsia and Chell pulled out their phaser rifles and Telsia said "All set Alex."

Munro nodded to the transporter chief "Energize."

Hazard team Beta dissappaered in blue light and rematerialized on the alien ship.


	11. Chapter 11 Data Retrieval

Chapter 11-Data Retrieval

Munro, Telsia and Chell beamed into their assinged control room. There were three console-like objects nearby along with a health and energy terminal on opposite ends.

"Alright let's see if any of these consoles are working…" said Chell

"Look at this! I've never seen such a ship…it's almost like it's alive!" commented Telsia

Chell was scanning the center console when he said "I think I found the data terminal! Just give me a minute to start the download…"

"It's hot in here…humid!" said Telsia

"I kinda like it." replied Chell

"You would, you're a Bollian."

Chell noticed some bright light floating around "I wonder what those are…they look like fireflies" he said.

The Chief came over the comm. "Chief to Munro, we've tapped into a data terminal here and started the download."

"Chell found one here too, he's accessing it now." Munro reported

Suddenly they heard some sort of alarm going off. "Ambush" cried Biessman.

"They're everywhere!…What are these things?!"

The comm went dead and Chell asked "What's going on over there?"

"Just start downloading!" yelled Telsia

"Ok, I've got it, starting download. Oh No"

Just then several bird-like creatures appeared out of nowhere. Munro got out the scavenger rifle and fired a long burst which made several dissapear in sequence. Murphy was nearby with her phaser rifle out.

"Keep downloading we'll cover you!" Munro yelled

Several more bird things beamed in, it looked like they came from some sort of device on the walls and floor. Munro decided to take them out. He aimed and fired an energy grenade which destroyed two of the devices on the floor. The creatures continued to appear from the other two but the numbers decreased dramatically. Soon however the firefly-like entities came over they repaired the damaged devices. Then the creatures came again in groups of four.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, the creatures stopped attacking.

"Chief to Munro, what's your status?"

"We're fine sir; they just stopped attacking a moment ago."

"Same thing here."

"I got all I could from the data terminal, let's get out of here!" said Chell

Chang interjected "There's a slight problem there. Whatever alarm went off must have raised this thing's shields. We can't contact Voyager and we can't beam out."

Master Chief came back on the comm and said "We need to regroup. We've done some scans and it looks like there's a junction point in section 29."

"I see it." Said Chell

"We'll meet up there and figure out how to take these shields down. Good luck, Chief out."

"Section 29 is through that door up there." Continued Chell

"Great, how do we get up there?" asked Telsia

"This way!"

Chell turned around and headed toward the other end of the room. He approached something that opened up to reveal something akin to a holographic control panel. He used the tricorder and a section of the wall to his left dissapeared only to reappear a second later. Munro cautiously approached the section, it dissappeared as he got close to it. He motioned for the team to move on. They came to another door, got close, as it dissappeared Munro spotted two of the creatures on the other side. "Back off" he yelled. He again had the scav rifle up and firing. The two creatures disappeared after being hit by many dilithium crystal shards. The team again approached the door, it cleared and there were no creatures beyond. Munro saw two devices on the floor.

He decieded to conserve his scav rifle energy and switched to his phaser rifle. He shot the two devices and they moved on. Telsia noticed something up ahead. "What are those things?" she asked. Chell looked closely at the circular device. "Hmm…they seem to have an isophasic signature similar to our own transporter technology." He reported "Transporters?" she asked. They soon entered another room with a ladder structure in the middle and what appeared to be a second level. Murphy went to the door on the far side. "Locked" she said. Chell asked "Where's the conrol panel?" Munro looked around and founding nothing but the devices the things were using to beam into a room, he decieded to climb the ladder. When he got to the top he looked around, then he spotted the terminal on the far side. He jumped to the second level and walked over to the panel. After hitting the panel he was just about to get back on the ladder when more bird things came out of nowhere. The team opened fire. With no firfly things in sight, Munro blasted one device after another. When they were all destoryed he then fired ont the remaining birds attacking his team. When they dissapeared the team adavaced through a series of doors and areas, fending of several waves of bird creatures. The team came to one door and as it opened Munro saw a tree-like thing in the middle of the room with head-like things on it with spots. He stepped forward and was hit by some sort of blast from the tree. His armor took a couple more hits as a pulled back. "We've got to take out those…those heads!" yelled Telsia.

Munro nodded and said "Switch to scavenger rifles, I'll get the door, when it openes fire the energy grenades at the door."

Chell and Telsia nodded and brought their scav rifles to bear. Munro got close enough for the door to clear then darted to the side as Chell and Telsia launched their grenades. The explosion took out one side of heads. Munro, deciding to save his weapon energy, switches to his hand phaser which has a rechargable power cell. He cautiously rounded the corner, and fired on more heads before they could fire. Then, with the area secure he walked over to a health terminal and activated his suit. Then he spotted an energy terminal, walked over to it and recharged his phaser rifle's energy. He then proceeded up a path that lead to another door going around the 'tree' "Let's go!" yelled Telsia.

"Wait for me!" replied Chell.

They went through more doors and transporters until they came to a large area which Munro's tricorder designated "Section 29". He signaled for the team to stop.

"Where are they?" asked Murphy.

"Chell, are you sure this is the right place?" Munro asked

"Positive! Maybe the aliens got them…" Chell replied

"BOO!"

The team looked up to see the Chief, Biessman and Chang above them.

"Looks like our scans weren't quite thorough enough." Stated the Chief

"Hey, Chell! I'm gonna jump- catch me!" yelled Biessman

"Stow it, crewmen! Look Munro, we've got to deactivate the shields before we can beam out. The data we downloaded from our console indicated there are three main sources we need to hit in order to do this. Your team should be able to take out the main computer core, through there." Pointing to a door at the far end. "We'll take out the backup power systems up here. We'll meet up at the main Power Core and shut it down."

"Yes sir." Said Munro

"What are we waiting for let's go!" Said Chell

"Good luck Munro, we'll meet you at the Power Core!" said the Chief

"Hey, Chell, behind you!" said Biessman

Chell wheeled around, phaser rifle in one hand.

"HAHAHAHAHA"


	12. Chapter 12 Deep Echoes

Chapter 12- Deep Echoes

Munro, Murphy and Chell continued down a corridor. "I've got point." Murphy said as they reached a door. The door cleared and the team rushed in. Munro and Chell spotted the spawning devices on the deck on either side of the door and shot them. Munro spotted another hanging from a wall and shot it as well. The team continued up a hall to the left. They then reached a depression in the deck. "Looks like another one of those transporters over there." Said Murphy. Seeing no immediate threat, Munro nodded. "Ok…let's go." Murphy stepped down. As she did a pod-type thing opened up in the middle of the floor, activating an energy field. Telsia disappeared. "Telsia!!!" yelled Munro but it was too late. Chell already had his tricorder out. "There's no trace of Telsia, it's as if she was completely vaporized!." He reported. "Some kind of energy field…from that pod." Munro said.

Without hesitation Munro shot the pod, destroying it and deactivating the energy field. Looking around more he found some ammunition crystals. After collecting the crystals he stepped through the transporter device with Chell right behind him. To his left he could see several stalk-like things hovering in the air. One of them exploded when he got too close. He shot the rest after backing off. Meanwhile Chell had taken down a flying creature that released energy spheres which had attacked him. Munro spotted a teleporter but it was offline. His suit located a console nearby which activated the teleporter. Munro and Chell hopped down from the ledge and stepped through the teleporter.

Chell moved forward with Munro right behind him. They could hear a low thrumming noise. It was the main computer core. Munro could see four control panels coming up from the floor and what looked like a holographic imaging system. "That must be the main computer core." Said Chell. Munro hit the first panel and the image of the ship they were on appeared. "That must be this ship!" said Chell. Munro went to the next one and pressed it. The image changed to a planet with one moon. "A planet…I wonder if that's their home." The images changed twice more to include a large space station and the starship graveyard with a station in the middle. Chell then attempted to shut down the computer core.

"I can't shut down the core from here. The main controls are on that upper level. But I think I found a security sequence for that door hold on…Got it!!" Chell said as a locked door cleared. Munro and Chell made their way up taking the out aliens and their spawning machines. They reached another area with a depression. The pod was already active but not insight. Munro spotted two teleporters, one on his side one on the other. The other one had some of the hovering stalk things nearby. On a hunch, Munro switched to the alien weapon and aimed at the teleporter. He fired once; the shot was instantly teleported to the opposite end of the room detonating all the stalks on the other side. He fired once more and the pod generating the energy field was destroyed. He grabbed the two ammunition crystals then went through the door. Around in a circle engaging multiple enemy targets. Eventually they managed to reach the computer core control room. There were two consoles and another locked door. "Alright, those consoles shut down the computer core. I'll work on getting this access door open." Said Chell. Munro hit the two panels and the computer core shut down. A moment later the door Chell was working on cleared up as well. Munro tapped his combage to open a channel to the Chief.

"Munro to Chief, we've shut down the main computer core."

_"Good, we just shut down the backup power systems. We're on our way to the main power core." _

"Right, Chell and I will meet you there."

_"You and? Where's Telsia?"_

"She…didn't make it."

_"Understood, we'll be in the back-"_

_"Heads up!"_ phaser fire sounded in the background.

_"Chang! Sir they got Auuuugggghhhhhhh!!!"_

_"Munro we're under heavy attack, you've got to get down to the power core and shut-"_ the channel went dead.

"Chief? Chief! Come in Chief!" said Munro but the channel remained silent

"They….they must have gotten them. Not so good for our very first away mission huh?" Said Chell

"Keep it together Chell it's just you and me now and Voyager is depending on us to get this information back to them. If we fail, everyone on that ship could end up dead." Said Munro

"Yes sir, sorry sir." Replied Chell

"We'll make it Chell, we have to. Come on." Said Munro

The two Starfleet officers continued into the next area.


	13. Chapter 13 Encounters

Chapter 13-Encounters

Munro and Chell walked into a room with a hallway attached. There was a health and armor station nearby along with an ammo crystal. Munro recharged his armor and health and his weapons and picked up the ammo crystal. There were ten stalk-like things hovering in the entrance to the hallway. Munro shot two energy grenades at the stalks exploding them. Further ahead he saw a console with some fire-fly things hovering over it. He followed the hallway around and saw a transporter on the far end of a room. There were two consoles to his left and a line of alien teleporters along the far wall on the ground. As soon as Munro and Chell entered the room the aliens began to beam in. The two Starfleet officers opened fire with everything they had. One alien after another beamed in. But again almost as soon as it started the attack stopped. Munro looked back over at the transporter but it looked as if it had been shot. "Oops, I think I shot that transporter." Said Chell

"Great." Muttered Munro.

Then Munro had an idea.

He went back down the hallway to the console where the fire-flies were. He drew out his phaser and destroyed the console. The console was immediately regenerated by the fire-flies. He turned around and there was another console in view of the one he had just shot. He fired his phaser again. This time the fire-flies came to this console and repaired it. Munro fired twice more at the console near the entrance to the room. The fire-fly things repaired those consoles and the transporter Chell had shot.

Munro and Chell both went through. They followed the corridor they found themselves in until they came up behind one of the aliens working at a couple of consoles. There were two teleporters on both sides of the creature. Munro sniped both of these and the creature didn't hear a thing. Then Munro shot the creature twice quickly and it disappeared. They followed the corridor from the alien down to a larger area with more teleporters, some kind of flying thing that attacked them, some consoles, a group of fire-flies and a force field. As they neared the room the aliens beamed in again. The two men fought for their lives fending off wave after wave then suddenly the attack stopped. Chell walked over to the consoles. "This console will probably open that force field up there." He said "Uh, oh, hmm…The only way it's going to stay open is if one of us keeps it open from here….guess that means me huh?"

"Don't worry Chell. We're almost out of here."

"Ok…but hurry."

Munro proceeded into the room the force field was protecting and was immediately attacked. He pulled out the scavenger rifle and opened fire. He had to back up almost t the door before the attacks stopped. He went back in, more cautious this time and collected the three ammo crystals. He switched back to his compression rifle and shot the flying thing that sent electrifying attacks his way. He went through the transporter and found himself in a large room with a pod generating a field on the floor below. Unfortunately there were fire-fly aliens near the pod so even if he shot it and ran across the depression in the floor to the other side the pod would regenerate before he got there. But he saw a console on his side. He shot the console then the pod and ran as fast as he could to the other side. He had just jumped back up on the main floor when the fire-flies repaired the pod and the same kind of field that had taken Telsia reactivated. To his right he saw a weapons recharge station which he used. He proceeded down the hallway and took a right turn. Coming around the corner he heard and saw the Chief fending off what seemed like a dozen of the aliens. Munro fired on them from above. Turned just in time to see another one come around the corner on his level and shot it down too. Three more shots at the aliens below and the area was clear. "Thanks for the help Munro. Where's Chell?" Asked the Chief

"He had to stay behind but he's ok. What happened to your team?" replied Munro

"Those, alien things overwhelmed us but I managed to get away. Now we've got to move on if we're going to salvage this mission at all." Explained the Chief

Together they moved on until they came to a large room with some kind of pods and a force field at the end. "What is this place?" asked Munro "Looks like some kind of stasis pods. The aliens must have a hibernation system." The Chief came up to a control panel on the wall next to the door and turned around. "What the…its Telsia and Biessman. They're all here."

"We've got to get them out of there."

"Right, we just have to shut down the power core, then we can beam them all out of here. Maybe the doctor can do something for them if it's not too late. Come on." Replied the Chief as he worked a control panel. The force field disappeared and the two soldiers moved forward. Munro spotted a health terminal via his suit and two ammo crystals. The Chief turned to him. "I'll run over to the other end and start taking out the spawners, you take the aliens themselves."

"Got it." Replied Munro

As soon as they stepped out the aliens appeared. Munro took out the aliens and the chief took out the spawners. They both ran to the teleporter at the other end of the ledge. Not stopping they went through and found themselves on a small catwalk of sorts with a pair of control panels at the end. Cautiously they approached. Suddenly an alien beamed in but instead of attacking it spoke. "Do not stop power, my people in stasis will die." It said.

"Just a minute. You're the ones who trapped us on your ship and attacked us." Replied the Chief cautiously

"You invade us! Believed you were the others, tried to contact you. Communication methods very different you attack us!" it said

"They were trying to communicate?" whispered Munro

"We capture your people analyze them, learn your language. We are Etherians, have been trapped here twenty-five of your Sol Standard Years. Crew very large. Colony ship, our people is stasis stay alive." The alien continued

"We're sorry for the misunderstanding, for killing some of your people. We were only acting in self defense." Said Munro

"Killed? Have not killed. When injured our people return to stasis, regenerated. Your people too not killed in stasis. Analyzed." The Etherian replied

"On behalf of my teams, I apologize. We thought the vessel was abandoned. We only wanted information from your computer. We're trying to find our way out of here." Said the Chief

"Our knowledge is yours, request and receive we are allies we will lower defenses you may return to your vessel." Replied the Etherian

"Chief to Voyager."

"Chief! It's good to hear from you. What happened over there?" replied Captain Janeway

"I'll explain when we get back. Let's just say we've made an ally. But we have injuries we need to beam directly to sickbay." Reported the Chief

"Understood….Sickbay has the wounded we're ready to beam you back now."

And with that the two men were beamed out of the alien ship and appeared in sickbay.


	14. Chapter 14 PostMission Debrief

Chapter 14- Post-Mission Debrief

The Chief turned to Munro as soon as he materialized in sickbay. "It was a difficult mission Munro but we got the job done. Have the doctor look at you and then report to Hazard Ops, I'll be assembling the team for debrief." He said

"Yes sir…Doctor."

The hologram approached and scanned him with a medical tricorder. "Ah Mr. Munro…your injuries seem to be rather superficial…dermal regeneration will not be necessary though you have some mild skin irritation. Perhaps you'd like an analgesic cream?" said the Doctor

"Uhhhh…whatever."

Munro headed out of sickbay and towards a turbolift. "Deck 4 Hazard Operations" he said.

Munro arrived in Hazard Ops a few minutes later and went to the locker room to talk to his teammates.

"I still can't believe we were all nearly killed last time." Chell was saying as he came up to the conversation.

"Yeah…they messed us up pretty good." Said Biessman

"Well that's not really fair…we didn't know what to expect. We didn't have all the information." Said Telsia

"Hey Munro." Said Biessman

"Alex did you hear anything about where they're sending us next?" Telsia asked him

"I heard Chakotay and Tuvok talking about scavengers." Said Chell

"Oh yeah?" replied Biessman

"I ran into Kim he was going over the data we brought back. He says they have some data on that machine that brought us here." Said Telsia

"Hey, Munro. Scuttlebutt says I'll be along on the next mission…some kind of stealth operation?"

Over the Comm Cortana said "All available Hazard Team Personnel report to the briefing room."

The five officers went into the briefing room and took their seats. The Chief and Cortana again borrowing the Doctor's mobile emitter stood up front. The Chief began "With the information our team retrieved we've been able to learn a few things about our situation…" the screen changed to the machine that Munro and Chell saw in the computer control room of the Etherian ship. "This is called the Forge. It's generating the dampening field that keeps Voyager and the other ships trapped here."

"Do we have any idea what's running that thing? Or why it's here?" asked Munro

"No. The Etherians had no detailed information about it. For all we know it could be a simple machine." Replied the Chief

The screen changed again to an image of an isotope. "This is isodysium, a rare isotope that doesn't seem to be affected by the Forge's dampening field. B'Elanna thinks she can use it to complete repairs and then hopefully Voyager can escape. Unfortunately…it's located here." The image changed again to a strange looking structure. It looked like an old federation ship, a Klingon, Malon and Hirogen ship all had a collision.

"What is that?" asked Munro

"The Scavengers base of operations. These are the scavengers. A loose alliance of survivors from the other ships trapped here. They survive by raiding other ships for supplies. Like their attack on Voyager earlier. They seem to have a transporter inhibitor field. So a team of six will be shuttled to the base by Ensign Paris. Once there Ken, Foster and I will set up an extraction point. Munro, Telsia and Odell will split up and retrieve three samples of the isodesium each. Cortana will now brief you on the new weapons and equipment you'll be bringing along."

"Thank you Chief. You've all read the UNSC database and know about the Covenant's Active Camouflage technology. With B'Elanna's help we've been able to reduce the heat the device generates. We've also replicated enough of the devices for every member of the team. Be aware that like the originals they have a limited active span but they do recharge. They last about thirty minutes but I'd recommend that you deactivate it when you're crawling through tight spaces. The Chief, Oviedo and I have been able to replicate and modify some of the standard weapons used by the UNSC you may find them useful. First the M6D pistol, we've added a silencer to the weapon and the clip itself has an internal replicator system with enough power for three dozen shots. Next the SMG, again a silencer on the barrel and internal replication system in the clip allows for three times the number of shots. You'll be getting a grenade replication system added to your suits as well, just press button one for a frag grenade, two for a plasma, three for a flash bang, and four for your own photon grenades." As she detailed the remaining weapons they appeared on the large screen. MA5C with silencer and replicator system, and Battle Rifle again with silencer at least for this mission and replicator system in the clips.

"We are a bit outnumbered here so we've opted for a stealth mission, avoid detection as much as possible however if you do find yourself in a hostile engagement then defend yourself by any means necessary. Gear up and report to the shuttle-bay" concluded the Chief

The six members selected for the team said their goodbyes to everyone else and went to the armory. Oviedo helped the team put on their new equipment and showed them how to work it. Munro picked up a silenced SMG, silenced pistol, standard phaser rifle, silenced Battle Rifle and the newly replicated compound grenade launcher. The rest of the team picked up their weapons of choice. They all piled into the turbolift and went to the shuttle bay.

They arrived in the shuttle bay to Ensign Paris saying "Well try it again." He said

"I've already tried it five times. They're stuck. I think the controls were damaged in the attack" said crewman Salma in the pit under the Delta Flyer.

"Lang to Paris, I'm down below but there's a series exhaust leak down here, I can't get to the overrides."

"Great" muttered Paris then noticing the Chief he asked "Hey Chief, can you go give Lang a hand?"

"Sure." Replied the Chief

The Chief went to some doors nearby and stepped on the lift. As he descended crewmen Lang was thrown by an explosion at his console. The Chief quickly stepped past him and hit an override allowing Lang to stand.

"Thanks that was close. Be careful. That's highly compressed ceraton Gas. It's gotta be over five hundred degrees. I don't think even your armor can protect you from that kind of heat."

"You'd be surprised at what this armor can take."

The Chief reached out with a hand to test the gasses leaking from the containers. His shields took the punishment easily. Taking a running start he leaped over some fallen containers landed and rolled under a stream of ceraton gas. He stood next to the other override panel and looked at his shield indicator. It read three quarters power. The Chief hit the other override then proceeded through the doors to his right. He found the docking clamp overrides and hit them as well.

"That did good work Chief."

"Good get up here Chief, let's get this show on the road."

The Chief climbed the ladder under the flyer and went to stand next to Foster.

"Tom Paris at your service, I will be your Captain for this flight. I estimate a cruising speed of about two thirds impulse power and an elapsed time of just under five minutes."

Foster smiled. "Alright 'Captain' we're all set here."

"Ok all aboard." Replied Paris

The team boarded the shuttle and as it lifted off Paris came over the comm. _"This is the Captain speaking. The in-flight movie will be Captain Proton vs. the RoboZombies. Thank you for flying Delta Flyer Airlines and we hope you have a pleasant flight."_ The Delta Flyer flew out of the shuttle-bay at close to one-third impulse power then sped up to two-thirds. The shuttle arrived near the airlock of the K'vort-class Bird of Prey section of the base. One by one the team exited the Delta Flyer and held position outside the airlock. Once every one was outside the Flyer took off and Paris came over the comm. "_Good luck gents see you back at the homestead._" He said

"Alright, this is a stealth mission, avoid detection at all cost however if you do find yourself in a hostile engagement defend yourself by any means necessary." Reminded Foster.

"On route to airlock 3" Odell said

"Right on my way to airlock 2" Telsia said

The remaining four members drifted towards the airlock door which opened automatically. As they cycled through they kept their weapons at the ready in case there were guards in the airlocks. There were none so they went forward and with the immediate area secure, everyone but the Chief took off their helmets. Meanwhile the other two members checked in.

"Odell checking in sir I'm through the third airlock."

"Telsia checking in sir I'm through airlock two."

Foster spoke up "Alright team we'll be using a coded UNSC comm. channel but try to maintain comm. silence unless absolutely necessary."

The Chief put his hand out to a display nearby. Cortana downloaded herself into the base's systems. "Cortana to Hazard team, I'm in the system and can provide you with tactical information along with help with any locked doors you may encounter. Good luck."

The Chief nodded to Munro and signaled him to advance.


	15. Chapter 15 Dangerous Ground

Chapter 15-Dangerous Ground

"_Ok Munro, we'll be able to track you for a little while here. We'll try to alert you to any dangers we can detect_." Foster said

Munro cautiously stepped forward and climbed a short ladder then went through the door ahead. Munro stepped ever so silently toward the door at the other end of the room which appeared to be the bridge of the ship with one Klingon asleep in the Captain's chair. "Careful, no running, footsteps could alert the Klingons stay quiet." Said Foster over the comm. The door on the other side of the room was locked looking around quickly he spotted a console which his Tactical eye display (TED) had located. He crept toward the console careful not to alert the Klingon in the chair. He hit the button and the door swept open. Munro quickly stepped through and found himself in a corridor. He stepped ahead again, came around a corner and saw a locked door at the far end and to his right was a cargo area. "Watch it. There's a couple of life signs just ahead. Lean around the corner and check it out." Said Foster.

He leaned around and saw a female Klingon patrolling between cargo containers. There were two or three males as well but they were all asleep. "_Munro this is the Chief, recommend you use your active camouflage to get past them_."

"I was thinking the same thing Chief." He said.

Switching on his active camo, the Starfleet officer disappeared. On his display there was a bar that signified how much power he had for the Active Camouflage. He walked over one sleeping Klingon and hid behind a container. Waiting for the patroller to turn her back he quickly crossed the small isle. Then he waited again for her to pass and when she did he got up and walked out. First he turned left but there was a locked door. Meanwhile Odell checked in.

"_Odell checking in sir, I found some isodesium. This section looks Mallon in design: run down, lots of fog, radiation levels are high._"

"_Roger, Foster out._"

He then went back down the corridor to another door that was unlocked. It was a large cargo bay with an upper walkway. He hid behind some containers as some kind of parasite squirmed ahead. There were two Klingon guards on the upper level, they shot at the parasite and killed it. One of them said "Ba! Filthy creature!" the other walked forward on the walkway, paused, swept the room with his eyes and rifle and satisfied that there were no other creatures there he and the other guard left through a large door at one end of the upper deck. It appeared to be a turbolift of some kind. Munro deactivated his active camo and watched the bar go back to full strength. There weren't any stairs so he climbed up some containers he saw a control panel next to the large door the Klingons went through. However when he activated it, it opened another door on the bottom level that was previously locked. He jumped the short distance to the ground and went through the door. Going down a corridor he turned left and saw a Klingon engineer working on something. He activated his Camouflage again and snuck past him up a ladder and past another Klingon. Telsia checked in as well.

"_Telsia checking in sir. I found a sample of the isodesium. Sir this area looks like a Federation ship, early 23__rd__ century. But I don't recognize these markings…_"

"_Telsia this is Cortana, I believe the markings represent that of the mirror universe found by Captain James T. Kirk after a transporter malfunction put him in another universe. One where everything in our universe exists but it is opposite in nature. The symbol you see is that of the 'Terran Empire' the Federations counterpart in that universe. Be advised, the humans in this universe are extremely paranoid take extra care and use your camouflage as much as possible._"

"_Understood._" She replied

"_This is not an archeological expedition, just get the samples and get out._" Replied Foster.

"_Roger sir Telsia out._"

Continuing through the door Munro found himself in a small hallway with a hole in the floor. Stepping carefully past it he came upon a lattice work of catwalks above what appeared to be a mess hall of some kind. Unfortunately this particular mess was occupied by half-a-dozen Klingons. He could overhear some of their conversations. One complained about human food. The others talked about the other scavengers. Munro quickly but _very_ carefully crept across the beams to the other side to find a patrolling Klingon. Thinking quickly he pulled out the silenced pistol and loaded a clip. Each member of the team had one self-replicating clip of narq-darts which could put down just about every kind of scavenger on the base. The trick would be not hitting them in the head or they just get killed.

As the guard continued his patrol in one direction Munro came up behind him and his silenced pistol coughed twice. The Klingon dropped like a rock. He took a quick reading of the Klingon with his tricorder. He'd be out for about three hours. Munro went through a door and found what appeared to be a security lock for a door in the opposite direction. He tapped the panel and a video appeared showing the door unlocking. Munro went out past the guard, around the corner and through the door. He saw a sample of isodesium, an energy terminal compatible with his weapons and another security console. This one unlocked another door near the sleeping Klingon. He grabbed the isodesium and opened the comm. channel to Cortana.

"_Go ahead Munro."_

"_I just found my first sample._"

"_Acknowledged, I'll inform the Chief and Foster. Proceed with caution. Cortana out._"

He went back out to the tranquilized Klingon and went through the unlocked door. At first it appeared to be a dead end but then he noticed a hole in the floor big enough for him to drop through. Unfortunately there was another sleeping Klingon down below. He again pulled out his silenced pistol and put two darts into the chest of the Klingon. He carefully lowered himself down as to not make too much noise as the troops in the mess would hear it. Once on the ground he walked out the door and activated his camouflage, snuck past a partially opened door to the mess hall then turned left and proceeded down a ladder.

"_Oh my God…_" said Odell

"_Odell? What's up_?" asked the Chief

"_I don't know…Bones? Wait…I think I'm being followed check in later Odell out!_"

"_Cortana to Odell I'm tracking a Hirogen life sign right behind you! Activate your camouflage now_!"

Only static from the comm. unit.

Munro continued down another ladder and around a corner into another larger area filled with crates and Klingons. Two were monitoring consoles; another was patrolling the area between the crates. Munro activated his camouflage and snuck past them. The door opened and the guard turned, but the warrior didn't see anything and assumed the door was malfunctioning.

"_Telsia to Munro."_

"Go ahead." Munro replied

"_I need a diversion, this area is heavily guarded and my active camo is low on power. Can you transfer power away from this quadrant?"_ she asked.

_"Cortana to Munro, you are in the Klingon engineering section. The power transfer console is on the top level." _She reported.

"I'm on it. What does it look like?" he asked.

"_It's a classic 23__rd__ century console, you'll know it when you see it."_ She replied.

"Ok…."

Taking out his tricorder he quickly located another sample of isodesium. He crawled into a conduit and removed the sample. It must have been powering something because when he removed it he heard a pair of Klingons talking on the next level.

"What happened?" asked a female engineer

"I don't know, check the terminal." Replied a male.

Munro climbed up a ladder and activated his camouflage. He snuck past the two engineers and up the next ladder. There were three Klingons on this level. He spotted the power transfer console and snuck past a guard then activated the console. When he did a door on the far side opened and a Klingon came out. The door remained open long enough for Munro to sneak by while another Klingon came through the door.


	16. Chapter 16 Conflicting Views Part 1

Chapter 16 Conflicting Views Part 1

Munro emerged onto an upper level of a cargo bay. Down below six Malon and two Klingons were having an argument.

"Saboteurs!" Said a Malon

"What?" replied a male Klingon

"Why did you divert our power?" asked another Malon

"We did not." Replied the male

"Our whole section in on emergency lights." Stated another Malon

"Bah! So much the better. Now you won't have to see each other's repugnant faces." Replied the female Klingon

"We're not leaving until you return power to our sector." Said the lead Malon

"Fine, be our guest!" replied the Klingon.

Ignoring the conversation, Munro snuck down a ladder and around a back area he saw a sample of isodesium up ahead next to a security door. He grabbed the isodesium and went through the door. It appeared to be a transition area from the Klingon section into the Malon section. The door behind him locked and the door in front of him was locked as well.

"Munro to Chief, I've got my last sample of isodesium. I'm on my way back."

"_Hold on Munro, Odell hasn't reported back yet. Can you go check it out_?"

"_Cortana to Munro, Odell's last known location was in the Hirogen section but you'll have to go through the Malon section to get there_."

"Understood. There's a security door here that I can't override."

"Hang on I got it." She replied

The door opened and Munro stepped through. He heard pumps going and saw a grate nearby. He kicked the grate down, crouched and stepped through. There was a short ladder, leading to a sort of Jeffery's tube-like area. With his silenced SMG out he crouch-walked through the conduit. He encountered what he assumed to be the parasitic creatures he saw in the Klingon cargo bay when he first got here. A single burst was sufficient to put each one down. He got out of the conduit near a door. It had green lights indicating that it was unlocked. Munro stepped through to find himself in a strange area. The lower portion of which was covered in the anti-matter waste the Malon are known for transporting. He carefully stepped over those areas and found a ladder. He climbed the ladder and found another grate. He punched and it fell down. He crawled through and into the conduit slightly above him. He got to the exit which ended in a room with two Malon monitoring a control panel and another patrolling the room. He could still hear the pumps.

The pumps.

"Munro to Cortana, can you shut down the pumps in the Malon section?"

"_Standby_."

The pumps ceased.

"Huh? What happened to the pumps?" asked a Malon

"They must have gotten jammed again. Let's go down and check it out." Said another

All three Malon got in the elevator and took it down to the level below which is where Munro entered the Malon section. Munro got out of the conduit; there were two doors in the room. One was green the other red. He could hear the Malon talking below.

"Do you see the problem?"

"Not yet. Maybe one of those parasite creatures got into it."

"Well hurry up. If you can't get the pump going then we can't empty the chamber if it floods."

Munro went to the door on the left; it opened reveling a large empty area high above the area Munro just came through. He went back to the control panel and flooded the chamber. The Malon drowned but Munro was able to hop on a large crate floating on the toxic waste and from there jump to a ladder and climb it to the top where another door waited.


	17. Chapter 17 Conflicting Views Part 2

Chapter 17 Conflicting Views Part 2

Munro went through the door with rifle at the ready but there was no danger on the other end. He was on a catwalk. Below was a large pool of antimatter waste and two Malons standing near the door. He could hear their conversation.

"I don't think they're coming." Said one

"Those stupid paranoid Hirogen! They lock all their doors. How are we supposed to tell them?" the other replied.

"Well let's just keep waiting and see if they come." Said the first

Munro wasn't in a mood to wait though, after looking around some and not finding any more Malon, he pulled out a plasma grenade, primed and tossed it between them. They didn't even hear it land until it was too late as the grenade exploded killing them both. Munro looked around and saw a ladder to his right. He climbed down the ladder then swept the room with his rifle. Satisfied he walked around the edge until he got to where the Malon where. The door was locked so he couldn't go that way.

Turning around he saw a conduit of some kind, like a Jeffries tube. Taking a step back he ran forward jumped and crouched and landed on the edge of the conduit. He crept forward with rifle up. When he was able to stand he noticed there were grates on the floor. Some were missing and in their place was more toxic waste. Taking care to step only on the grates he made his way along the conduit. As he came around the corner he heard squeaking like the creatures he had encountered earlier. He brought his SMG up and put a silenced burst into both creatures.

He saw a depression in the floor filled with the toxic waste. There was a box within jumping distance that was just high enough to be above the waste. Munro jumped and landed on the crate. Taking care he stepped up on the main floor near a wall. He wall walked around the depression. Thankful that there were no Hirogen or Malon in the area he took a look around and saw a ladder on an upper level. He clambered up some crates and went up the ladder. That's when he noticed the architecture changed. It looked more Hirogen than Malon. He crouch-walked along a large grate and could hear some Hirogen below.

"Where is the Alpha?" asked one

"He's on a hunt. Some fresh prey I hear." Replied another

He came to a brake in the grate, switched from the SMG to the Battle Rifle, dropped down to the floor below and swept the room. With no hostiles in sight he took a look around and saw a large door ahead. With nowhere else to go he went forward until the door opened. There were two Hirogen on his left and right on a slightly elevated platform. Having heard the door open, they turned, and were both dropped from a trio of slugs to the head each. The room was clear and Munro spotted two smaller doorways directly ahead. He went through the left-hand door; swept his rifle to the right and dropped a Hirogen crouched behind a small crate. Sweeping left he saw no other Hirogen. Then he heard a door open behind him. He turned, ducked, rolled to the right, came up in a crouch and put six bullets into another Hirogen as scavenger rifle shots blasted over his head. Taking a moment to secure the room and some adjacent ones, he found a lift. Cortana contacted him.

"_Cortana to Munro, I'm tracking at least a half-dozen Hirogen on the floor below. Proceed with caution._"

Again, with nowhere to go he stepped on the lift and pressed the activation panel. He pressed a button on the side of his suit and he disappeared as the active camouflage came on. Again on his HUD a bar appeared in the right corner of the screen depicting how much power his camouflage had left. Taking great care he moved through the room to the back. There was a large ball with spikes in a back corner. From there he saw a conduit. He climbed up on the ball and ducked into the conduit and deactivated his active camo. He crouch-walked ahead until he came to a ladder, he looked up then down and saw Odell at the bottom of the ladder. He stepped out onto the ladder and started down. He got to Odell's side and took out his tricorder.

"Odell!" he said

"Yes sir. I was ambushed. My weapon, communicator, taken…Never saw them." He said

"Save your strength Tom I'll get you outta here. Munro replied as he tapped his combage.

"Munro to Foster, I found Odell. He's hurt bad. I'm beaming him back to the extraction point with his isodesium."

"_Acknowledged_."

"Munro, wait. I still have to get, one more sample of the isodesium."

"Don't worry Tom. I'll get it."

"Be careful…Ambush."

Munro pulled out his Battle rifle as Odell disappeared in blue light. Crouching once again he crept forward until he came to what looked like a cargo area. He saw a Malon pushing a crate forward. Munro put a silenced burst into his back. He jumped down and to his left saw a door. Cautiously he stepped forward and was nearly shot to death as a flurry of scavenger rifle shots flew past him as he ducked next to a larger crate. He pulled out a frag grenade, pulled the pin and chucked it around the corner. The blast took three of them but there were two left. Battle rifle up he poked around the corner, saw them and put a three round burst into each. With his immediate surroundings secure he took a moment to look around. He was in a large cargo bay. Across the chasm there were doors like those on an old Constitution class starship. But they had markings he was unfamiliar with. Then he saw human scavengers coming out of the doors. He took up a position behind a crate and readied the sniper rifle.

Peaking out, he snapped two quick shots off.

CRACK!

CRACK!

He looked around the side of the crate and snipped two more. He racked the bolt to trigger the replication sequence in the clip. He saw three more human scavengers all pouring fire across the bay.

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

The firing stopped. He looked for additional troops but there were none. Then he spotted a sample of isodesium

"Munro to Cortana, I found the last piece of Isodesium…but there's a huge bay between us. There's a crane system of some sort but the control room is on the other side."

_"Acknowledged Munro, unfortunately I can't activate it. That section is isolated from the rest of the base."_ Replied Cortana

"_Wait a second Alex I think I know where you are. I was just there hold on." _Said Telsia

A moment later he saw Telsia walk through the doors of the control room on the other side. Munro had his zoom enhancement activated and could clearly see Telsia sweeping the small room with her rifle.

_"Ok I'm here. I see the controls. Give me just a second."_ She said

She touched a control and the crane started up going from one end of the bay to the next. Suddenly her motion tracker showed two red dots behind her. Two male human scavengers came in a pointed their weapons at her.

"Take her alive." One said

The other smacked her on the back, knocking her out. He was in the process of picking her up when…

CRACK!!

One of the scavengers dropped like a rock.

The other scavenger ducked and proceeded to drag Telsia out of the room.

"Munro to Chief, Telsia has been captured I've got to rescue her."

"Of all the…all right Munro, but be careful, we can't afford to lose another man."

"Don't worry sir. I'll get her Munro out."

The crane system was running so he hopped onto a platform between the bays, climbed the ladder and when the time was right jumped onto the crane platform. He leaped to the other side of the bay, hit and rolled as he hit the deck. He looked around for more scavengers but found none. His TED located the last sample of Isodesium. It looked to be running the crane system. Munro climbed the short ladder to a control panel and the isodesium. He took the sample out and the crane came to a screeching halt. Getting back down on the deck he tried some of the doors at the back. Only one opened and it led to a turbolift. Remembering his history he grabbed one of the handles and held on till it reached the next level.


	18. Chapter 18 Disorder

Chapter 18 Disorder

Munro exited the turbolift after just a few minutes. Clearing the immediate area he went through a set of Klingon style doors into a room filled with scavengers. Sleeping, snoring scavengers. He immediately activated his camouflage and went through a Starfleet style door. The hallways did indeed look as though they were from the 23rd century. He crept silently through the halls he saw two scavengers playing multi-level chess. He took a right and went around the corner. Even though he was cloaked he passed close enough to one of the doors to trigger it. But it didn't open all the way and just made a creaking sound.

"What was that?" one of them said.

"Sounded like those broken doors over there." Said the other.

"I don't know, guess we better check it out." Said the first.

Munro ducked out around the corner. He saw two of the parasite creatures that seem to inhabit the conduits of the base. He pulled out a combat knife and killed them both. Around the corner he could still hear the scavengers.

"When are those lazy techs going to fix this thing?" the first said

"Yea…it's been like this for months." Replied the other

"Well if it were up to me Spider would be in the agony booth for a week."

"Well let's just jam it open." Replied the other

"Yea, fine."

"Hey come on let's get some grub."

"Yea."

Munro waited for them to leave and crept back around the corner. To his left he saw a red door with a force field protecting it. Munro looked around for a control panel and found one in some quarters just inside the hallway of the jammed door. The force field deactivated and the door opened. He went through the door with his silenced pistol and put a round in each parasite he found. He went through a small conduit like area that led to a small Klingon hallway he turned left and went through the Starfleet style doors. He saw another set ahead but beyond his motion tracker picked up three targets. He climbed up some stairs to his right and found himself in a small alcove looking over the engine room he could see a male scavenger right below him and a male and female scavenger working at some consoles closer to the warp core.

"Hey Spider! Don't throw that crossover yet you'll blow the converter." Yelled the woman

"Yea Chris I got it under control just a few more seconds." Replied the one working just under Munro who he assumed to be Spider.

"So they caught this woman trying to steal some of our isodesium. She had a whole bag full of it." Said the one working next to the woman

"What? Where did she come from?" asked the lady

"Nobody knows….but Doc Kreegs got her down in sickbay for questioning." Replied the one closest to Munro

"Ok all set here." Said Ren

The male and female began to walk out.

"Great! Come on Ren, let's get back to that converter those crinkleheads gave us."

"Hey Spider…if you need us for anything just holler." Said Ren

"Yea."

Munro waited for them to leave the engine room, then, with his camoflauge activated snuck past the two scavengers as they walked through the door. He went up the steps at the far end and went through the door. He blew out the grate to his left then with his phaser out he killed at least eight parasites that inhabit the conduits of the base. Then climbed down a ladder into the next section….


	19. Chapter 19 Infiltration

Chapter 19 Infiltration

Munro went through the door straight ahead. He heard some scavengers around the corner so he went the opposite direction and had to go through some quarters. He ended up in a hallway and careful not to trigger the doors he crept up the hallway. He saw a redshirt walking around the corner on patrol. Munro ducked down behind a box. Leaning around the corner but careful not to expose himself Munro saw the red-shirt talking to a gold-shirt.

"Anything to report?" asked red

"Yea I'm bored otta my mind." Replied gold

"Just keep an eye out ok?"

"Yea, yea fine."

"You gold-shirts are so lazy."

"Oh yeah? Well you redshirts think you run this ship."

"Watch your mouth…..watch your back."

Munro watched them go back around the corner. He saw another hallway to his left. He activated his camouflage and went into the hallway being sure no one was within ear or eye sight he went through a door to his left.

"Munro to Foster. I know where Telsia is being held…but this area is swarming with scavengers…it's going to be impossible for me to get to her even with active camouflage.

_"Don't risk the mission Munro; if you can't rescue Telsia, you're going to have to abort. Telsia knew what she was getting into. She wouldn't want you to get killed in some hopeless-"_Foster replied

"Wait a second; I've got an idea, Munro out."

With that he put on one of the scavenger uniforms and brought out the scavenger rifle. There was a mirror nearby allowing him to adjust the clothing so that his Starfleet uniform didn't show. He went out the door to the right then down some steps. He saw two scavengers ahead. To his right there was a turbolift shaft with a ladder but no turbolift. He went through the turboshaft door and jumped onto the ladder. Climbing down the ladder he went through another blue door, turned left then right then left again and found himself in sickbay. He saw Telsia lying on a bed with Doc Kreege scanning her with a tricorder. His first impulse was to pull out his pistol with tranquilizer darts. But the Doc noticed him first.

"You there. The prisoner is a bit stubborn get me some Veritrax 12 from the lab…it's the blue hypospray."

Munro nodded and walked around the corner and through a door on his left he saw the Veritrax 12 on a table. But on another table were some orange colored hypo sprays. Pulling out his tricorder, it quickly identified it as Solinol…a tranquilizer. Munro smiled to himself and grabbed the Solinol. He went back to the doctor and injected him before he could call for the guards outside. He got closer to the biobed. Telsia didn't recognize him at first.

"It's me…Alex."

"Thank goodness. Undo these restraints."

Munro quickly undid the restraints and Telsia picked up her helmet, weapons and isodesium.

"The only way back to the extraction point is through the control center…and it's sure to be guarded." Telsia said

"They'll be suspicious if the doors suddenly open and no one comes through so we shouldn't cloak ourselves….you'll have to pretend to be my prisoner." Munro said

"Oh come on Munro that's the oldest one in the book." Replied Telsia

"Got any better suggestions?" asked Munro

"Ok ok, here follow me."

He followed Telsia out of sickbay and was almost immediately at the door to the control room.

"I have the pass-code for the door…give me a second." Telsia said

The door opened and Telsia pull out her pistol loaded with standard rounds and put her hands behind her back.

"Four of them…be ready." She whispered.

They walked up to a group of four scavengers.

The lead scavenger stepped up. "Where are you taking her?" he asked.

"She's my prisoner." Munro replied.

"Why did you bring her here? I never told anyone to- wait…who are you…men detain them both!"

At that Munro fired a long burst from the scavenger rifle killing the man in front of him. Telsia put the other three down with head shots from the pistol. "Shoot the door before the reinforcements come!" she yelled.

Munro turned and put an energy grenade into the door controls. They sparked and locked down. With the room secured Munro pressed a button on the Captain's chair. The door behind it opened up into the Klingon ship. Munro and Telsia went down the hallway and through another door. There were many boxes stacked high enough to hide them both. There were three scavengers in the room. "I don't think your prisoner trick is going to work this time." Telsia said

"It didn't work the first time." Munro replied

"Any suggestions?" asked Telsia

"Ok, look, I'll go out there and distract them. They shouldn't recognize me with this disguise on…at least not right away. While they're distracted you sneak out. Take all the isodesium with you." Munro said

"Ok. Just be careful." She replied

"You know me."

"Hey Munro…last one there is a Denebian slime devil!" she said

Munro walked around the corner. The scavengers stood up.

"Hey what are you doing here?" asked a blue shirt male

"The Captain sent me down to check things out." Munro replied.

"Really? I didn't hear anything from the Captain about this." Replied the scavenger

"Oh yeah… the communications are out. He sent me down here to tell you in person."

"Tell us what?" another blue shirt asked.

"Uh… that I'm coming." Said Munro

Just then a scavenger came over the comm.

_ "All hands, red alert. There's an intruder disguised as one of us with a woman. They killed the Captain capture them at all costs!"_

Munro jumped behind some crates and scavenger rifle fire hit the wall behind him. He popped back up and sprayed the room with assault rifle fire using what would be a full clip. Three scavengers went down from multiple bullet holes. Munro racked the bolt on the assault rifle which triggered the replication sequence. Munro went through the same door he saw Telsia go through when he was talking to the scavengers. He ended up in a cargo bay of some kind with an elevator. With no other doors in sight Munro got on the lift and activated it.


	20. Chapter 20 The Hunter

Chapter 20 The Hunter

Munro stepped off the lift as the doors opened. He found himself in the cargo bay he came through when he first started the mission. Then he heard footsteps near him.

"Who's there?" he asked to no one in particular

A large Hirogen stepped toward him from his left; he was carrying a large rifle in his hands.

"I am the Hunter….You are my prey." He said

"Whoa, whoa wait wait a second." Munro started

"I have been tracking you since you entered our hunting grounds…your performance has been exemplary…you shall make a challenging prey…" said the Hunter

"Look…there's no need for this…can't we just-"but before he could finish the Hunter opened fire. Munro quickly jumped down to the boxes below. The Hunter stayed on the top walkway. Munro took cover behind some boxes as the Hunter ran around to a better firing position. Munro pulled his battle rifle out a popped off a quick burst. But before the bullets hit, a golden shield activated around the Hunter as he returned fire. Munro ducked behind the boxes again.

"Your skull will make an excellent trophy for my wall." the Hunter taunted.

Munro remembered the Compound Grenade Launched Oviedo told him about. He switched to it and when the Hunter stopped firing he poked his head around and saw that the shield had deactivated. Munro fired off a shot but it still hit the shield. It also made the Hunter stumble, and then he opened fire again destroying one of the boxes Munro was hiding behind. Munro took some hits as he ducked behind some other boxes. The Hunter stopped firing and Munro shot him again. He waited for the Hunter to stop shooting and hit him again. Munro shot him between the Hunters long bursts five more times before hearing a moan as the Hunter fell. Munro climbed the crates to the second level. He crouched next to him and scanned him with his tricorder.

"Hold still I might be able to get a medic."

"No…you are the victor…may your hunts…bring you…great…honor…"

With the Hunter's last breath he gave Munro his weapon. It was a tetryon based gattling gun. He looked at the door down on the bottom floor. The one he came through the first time. He could hear some Klingons talking behind it.

"What's going on in there?…Open this door...Who's in there?...You, cut this door down." Said a Klingon

Munro saw sparked coming from the bottom left side of the door coming up and over. He readied the Tetryon Gun and fired as soon as the door exploded and in rushed half a dozen Klingons. The Tetryon Gun worked wonders on them cutting them down before they could even get a shot off. Munro advanced down the hallway cutting down more Klingons. He went through the cargo bay and cleared it then cleared the adjacent halls next to the door to the bridge. The door to the bridge opened and a Klingon attacked him with a warrior's knife known as a D'k tahg. He blocked the stab, twisted the arm and punched the Klingon. Munro added a straight kick for good measure pulled out his phaser and shot the Klingon. Munro stepped past the body went through the door on the other side and down a small ladder to the extraction point. Foster, the Chief, Telsia, Ken and Odell were already there.

"All right let's get out of here. Activate the pattern enhancers….I've got the isodesium." Said Foster.

Munro, Telsia and Ken crouched and activated the pattern enhancers. Suddenly half a dozen Borg drones beamed in.

"BORG!" someone yelled.

Everyone switched to the Phaser Compression Rifle except the Chief who had already put down two from Assault Rifle fire. Two more went down from phaser fire. The last two adapted to the phaser rifles. One drone walked up behind Foster and injected him with assimilation tubules. Munro tried to aim but couldn't get off a good shot. The last two drones and Foster disappeared along with the isodesium.

"Oh no…." said Munro.

"Munro? He's dead." Telsia said referring to Ken who had been hit by one of the drone's insanely strong arms.

"Let's get out of here before more Borg or scavengers show up." Said the Chief

"Right…Munro to Voyager….five to beam back."

Back on Voyager the transporter operator reported to Tuvok. "Sir, two of them are wounded…its Lathrop and Odell."

"Beam the wounded directly to sickbay." Replied Tuvok

The Chief, Munro and Murphy appeared on the transporter pad.

"Where is Lieutenant Foster? Would you mind explaining exactly what happened?" Tuvok asked

"It..It was the Borg sir. When we activated the pattern enhancers…they must have been able to beam in." Munro replied

"They took Foster and the isodesium." Said Telsia

"They caught us completely off guard, they were in and out before we could even react." Munro continued

"Ms. Murphy you are dismissed….Could you not have prevented the Borg from taking the isodesium?" asked Tuvok

"Sir, I didn't have a clear shot past Foster." Replied Tuvok

"Add to that the fact that they had already adapted to the phaser rifles so any shot Munro would have taken wouldn't have made a difference. I didn't have a clear shot either. But we do know that the Assault rifle works pretty well against the Borg." The Chief put in

"Noted Master Chief….Mr. Munro, prepare a full report, I will summon you both when we determine what action to take.

"Aye sir." Replied Munro

"Understood." Said the Chief


	21. Chapter 21 Fallout

Chapter 21 Fallout

After Tuvok left the Chief went to the Armory and Munro went to the locker room and lounge. Munro found Telsia, Biessman and Chell in the locker room.

"I don't know what we were thinking, this is crazy! We're dead in space we're not gonna make in outta here!" yelled Chell

"Crewmen, get a hold of yourself…we'll make it." Munro replied

"If you say so Munro." Said Chell

Munro approached Biessman.

"Don't talk to me Munro! I'm wound up…I'm a quantum torpedo ready to blow man!" yelled Biessman

"Maybe you should go to the holodeck and blow off some steam Rick." Replied Munro

"Nah I'm saving it all up for the Borg."

Munro left him at that, walking around to the other side he found Telsia. She looked at him. "Munro look, if you're blaming yourself don't. None of us saw it coming…you couldn't have done anything." She said

"I know." Munro replied.

In the meantime the Chief was working in the Armory with Oviedo on Seven of Nine's Infinity Modulator.

"Sir, right now we're only going to get 150 standard shots from a full charge. Even fewer if we use the secondary. If we go up against the Borg it'd be best to have lots of ammo. I've seen how effective bullets are against them. They can't really adapt because every bullet would be somewhat different from the next. I think the I-Mod would be good for repelling boarders since they can only beam so many aboard. For our boarding operations however projectile weapons work just as well." Said the Chief

Munro was walking into the crew lounge when he overheard Jurot and Chang talking.

"I just don't believe there was nothing they could have. Sir." She said

"Am I interrupting something?" asked Munro.

"Shall I speak freely?"

"Go ahead."

"Honestly, Munro, I don't know how it could have gone so poorly. Ken, Foster, Odell and we lost the isodesium."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying someone must be to blame that's all."

Munro moved on to a pair of Hazard team members near the window.

"Hey Munro I heard Odells gonna make it. The Doc says you got to him just in time." Said one

"One thing I don't understand….why would the Borg take Foster and the Isodesium in the first place." Asked the second

"Who knows? I just hope we can get them back." Said the First

Munro walked over to the table where two more crewmen were sitting.

"Hey Munro." Said one

"I hope they're sending us over there. I know we can get Foster and the Isodesium back." Said Nelson

Munro then went to the Armory and found the Chief and Oviedo working on the I-Mod.

"Munro, the Chief and I have been working on Seven's I-Mod. It's coming along…should be ready for field test pretty soon."

"Munro we've increased the power to the replicator system in the Assault Rifle and Battle Rifle clips. They can now replicate what normally would be a full load. This allows us to carry five times the ammo we would carry with normal clips."

Munro nodded in approval as Tuvok came over the comm.

_"Ensign Munro, Master Chief, report to Astrometrics."_

"Let's go." Said Munro

The two stepped out of the Armory and turned to the turbolift as the doors opened revealing Tuvok to already occupy it. Munro and the Chief stepped in. "Deck 8, Astrometrics." Said Tuvok

Munro looked down at the deck. "Look Fosters alive, we can still save him."

"That is a possibility. You may well have the chance to find out." Tuvok replied

"What?"

"Though it goes against my better judgment you are next in line for command of the Hazard Team….We are going to infiltrate the Borg Cube." Tuvok said

The Turbolift stopped and Tuvok, Munro and the Master Chief stepped out and walked into Astrometrics. Ensign Kim, Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway were already there.

"Ensign, Chief, I take it you know Seven and Ensign Kim." Janeway said

"Seven and I were going over the Etherians' data and we've located a Borg Cube here in the dampening field with us." Said Kim

"The vessel appears to be heavily damaged." Stated Seven

"Munro, you and the Hazard team are going to beam over there and get back the isodesium." Said Janeway

"And Foster?" asked Munro

"Ensign we're not even sure if he's still alive but if it's possible to rescue him the yes by all means. But the isodesium is of the highest priority. Seven of Nine will be joining you on this mission. And Ensign, you are now officially in command of the Hazard Team. Seven has prepared a plan of action." she replied

"Since we don't know where the Borg may be storing the isodesium. I've chosen a beam-in point within reasonable proximity to a primary subprocessing matrix. From there I should be able to determine the exact location of the isodesium." Said Seven

"Why not beam directly to the Matrix?" asked Munro

"We do not wish to alert the Borg. The beam-in point is in an area of low importance. There is also an assimilation chamber en route. It is possible that Lieutenant Foster is as yet unassimilated and being held there." Seven replied

"Hopefully they'll be too busy repairing their ship to worry about a few trespassers." Kim put in.

"Sounds good. Get in there. Get the isodesium…and rescue Foster if you can."

"Yes Captain." Replied Munro

"I will join you and your team in the transporter room." Said Seven

Everyone but Munro and Tuvok left. "Mr. Munro, I trust your performance will surpass your previous efforts." Said Munro

"Yes sir."


	22. Chapter 22 Proving Ground

Chapter 22 Proving Ground

Five Starfleet officers and one SPARTAN materialized on the Borg ship. Everyone had weapons up and ready. But the Borg didn't attack.

"Alright people, just keep to yourselves and they should ignore us. This isn't a simulation. So stay sharp." Said Munro.

The team looked around. There didn't appear to be a way out. The entrance to the chamber they were in was protected by a green forcefield. There were two Borg drones in the room with them. Munro nodded to the Chief who walked up behind one and snapped its neck. Then quickly got behind the other and did the same. Everyone tensed, waiting for drones to beam in.

But none came.

Munro spotted a distribution node near the forcefield. "Ensign Munro, green forcefields can usually be shut down by destroying a nearby distribution node." Seven said. Munro nodded and aimed his compression rifle and fired a single shot. The node exploded and the forcefield flickered and disappeared. Munro signaled to the rest of the team to move forward. Moving past more Borg drones they moved onto a walkway of some kind. There were six regeneration alcoves. All but one was empty. Suddenly the one that was occupied activated. Nelson raised his weapon in alarm.

"What are you doing?" asked Seven

"Sir! He's coming right at us should I take him down?" asked Nelson

"No. Lower your weapon. They'll ignore us till they consider us a threat." Said Munro

The team moved on to the end of the walkway. They saw a blue forcefield with a generator nearby. "High security forcefield. I shall attempt to override it." Said Seven as she approached a console.

"Chief, hold this position." Said Munro.

The Chief nodded and signaled the team to different positions around Seven and the console. "This terminal is malfunctioning. Crewman Chang take out that generator." Said Seven.

Chang knelt in front of the generator. He placed a circular object underneath it. "Take cover." he said. Everyone got clear and he activated the charge. The instant the charge blew the generator; several Borg beamed in and started firing weapons. Five drones went down from compression rifle fire. Another trio went down from the Chief's assault weapon. The last three had adapted to the compression rifle. "The Borg have adapted, switch to Assault Rifle." Said Seven. But Munro switched to the I-Mod. Two drones went down from assault rifle bursts and the last fell from the new I-Mod. Munro had grabbed the weapon from the armory to test it in the field to make sure it still worked. The team moved on down a hallway. "Since when can the Borg shoot?!" Asked Nelson. "They've obviously been isolated from the collective for some time they must have adapted." Said Seven

They continued down a corridor and came upon a regenerating drone. The Chief pulled out a plasma sword flicked it on and stabbed the drone. The drone fell to the ground in a heap. Further down they found Foster. Jurot was standing in front of a force field. "Look! It's Foster, we have to save him." She said

Seven of Nine took out her tricorder and scanned the field. "I detect no controls or power source for this force field. I would advise against taking unnecessary risks." She said

"Unnecessary? Munro we can't just leave him behind like this." Jurot replied.

"The isodesium is of the highest priority. The Borg already consider us hostile and Lieutenant Foster is most likely beyond help." Seven replied

"Over here." Said Chang. Munro walked over and saw that one of the force fields had gone down. Munro entered the room and stepped on a lift and pressed a button. The lift ascended one level. Munro crouched to get past some pipes. He cleared the next room, turned left shot two Borg then got on another lift which descended. "Hurry Munro, they're almost done." Said Jurot. Before the lift hit the ground Munro had already shot the drone preparing to move Foster. Munro approached him and activated his comm. link. "Munro to Voyager, I found Foster, one to beam up."

_"Good work Ensign. We're beaming him directly to sickbay."_ Said Janeway.

"I stand corrected Ensign, good work." Said Seven

"You did the right thing." Said Jurot

"We must continue with our mission to retrieve the isodesium." Said Seven.

Munro and his team moved on, disposing of five more drones before Munro destroyed a grate, jumped in, moved through the tunnel to the other side where he could see at least seven or eight Borg drones and a distribution node. Munro switched to his phaser and blew the node apart. The drones shut down and a burst of phaser fire was put into each so that they wouldn't wake up when the node regenerated. A blue force field was also disabled when Munro shot the node. The team advanced through a walkway next to a large empty area. Then six more drones woke up. The Chief spun and hit a drone with the butt of his rifle. Then more rifle fire went out taking down the six drones in seconds. However on the other side of the chasm more drones beamed in a started shooting at the team. The Chief, Munro, Murphy, Jurot and Nelson all took cover near empty alcoves and started returning fire. The Chief switched to the sniper rifle and picked off almost all but one. "I don't have a clear shot!" said Nelson. Then a Borg weapon hit him. The Chief took out the last drone before it could fire again. "Nelson is down." Said Chang. Jurot knelt next to him and scanned him with a medical tricorder. "He is hurt bad Munro. He's got to beam out." She said

"Sorry sir." Said Nelson

"Get back to the ship Nelson." Replied Munro

"Yes sir." Nelson said

"Munro to Voyager, Nelson is down beam him out."

_"Acknowledged….we got him."_ Said Janeway

The team again advanced. It almost turned into a dead end with a pair of force fields on the right hand side. Two drones beamed in right in front of Munro. Munro ducked as rifle fire from his teammates hit the drones. The drones fell in heaps, and the forcefields deactivated. The team moved forward until they came to a corridor. "Stay here and watch for more Borg. Ensign Munro and I will scout ahead." Said Seven

"Aye sir." Said Chang.

The Chief stayed behind as well directing Chang and Jurot to defensive positions. Meanwhile, Seven and Munro continued on until they came to another blue forcefield. There was a control panel next to it. As she got to work on the panel she said "This should be the transfer point to the inner chambers. This field will take some time to bypass."

"Alex! The Borg are coming." Said Chang over the comm.

Munro could hear rifle fire not too far off. Then over the comm. again "There's too many of them." And "Fall back, Chang set charges there and there. Detonate on my order." Said the Chief. Jurot, The Chief and Chang began an orderly retreat, leapfrogging each other while waiting just long enough for Chang to set his charges. Then they broke into a sprint to Munro and Seven's position. "Chang, now!" said the Chief. Chang hit a button on his forearm. Two big explosions were heard down the corridor taking out half-a-dozen drones. More drones began to beam in. Luckily the team's weapons could not be adapted to so they were able to hold out just long enough for Seven to get the forcefield down. "The forcefield is down." She said

"Let's go." Said Munro

The team again began an orderly withdrawal into the inner chambers.


	23. Chapter 23 Information

Chapter 23 Information

The team advanced past the now deactivated forcefield. There was a split in the corridor.

"Which way?" asked Munro

"Either will suffice." Replied Seven

The team continued straight ahead, turned some corners and came to another split when Borg began to beam in. Lead flew everywhere as drone after drone was cut down. One drone was nearly able to insert its tubules into Chang before the Chief kicked it in the chest. The Spartan's enhanced strength crumbled the Borg chest armor and the drone literally flew back into a far wall. The group turned right and encountered a green forcefield when more Borg began to beam in. Munro spotted a distribution node on the other side of the forcefield. He ducked into a crawlway went down a bit turned right and came to a grating. The bars were just wide enough to stick his compression rifle through and destroy the node which deactivated not only the forcefield but any drones in the immediate vicinity.

They continued again until they reached a wide elevator. Two more drones appeared in front of Munro and he cut them both down. His team was a bit behind him and two more drones beamed in right in front of them. Those drones crumbled under withering fire. Munro and his team boarded the elevator and activated the lift. It descended one level where the team was forced once more to fend off wave after wave of drones. And just as suddenly as they beamed in, they stopped. The team stepped cautiously out of the elevator. They looked around and saw they were on an upper level. There was another lift nearby behind the large one. They took that one down one more level. When they stepped off six drones beamed in. Two were right in front of them, the other two sets of two were to either side. As those drones were shot to pieces they heard _more_ drones beam in. The team fanned out to either side of a large circular structure in the middle of the room and took down the drones that had beamed in.

Seven stood in front of a console-like display.

"What is it?" asked Munro

"The primary sub-processing matrix." Seven replied as she inserted her tubules into the display.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Munro asked

"I should be able to download useful information from the memory core… Strange….memory core is fragmented…certain data is…shielded…this is not typical of the Borg all information is shared." Said Seven

"These Borg are anything but typical." Jurot said

"Intriguing" whispered Seven

"What?" asked Munro

"I have found more information about the Forge. This cube engaged a probe similar to the one Voyager encountered. The probes are sent by the Forge. Those vessels with sufficient technology to destroy the probes are brought here by the resulting explosions. Once here, this cube was invaded by a vessel sent from the Forge. The Scavengers call them 'Harvesters'. They forcibly disassemble the trapped ships and take the parts and crew back to the Forge. They abducted hundreds of drones, and nearly one quarter of the ship before they were driven off. The Harvesters resistance quotient is extremely high." Reported Seven

"A species even the Borg are afraid of?" asked Jurot.

"We don't plan on sticking around long enough to make their acquaintance. Seven, any information on the isodesium?" asked Munro

"Just a moment…querying…yes three levels below…Quaternary Environmental Control Chamber nine-alpha. There is more but I cannot access it memory is fragmented." Replied Seven

She disengaged herself from the console and the team continued down a short hallway into another room with a green forcefield. Borg began to beam in again, lots of them. Munro spotted a distribution node behind a kind of fence. "Chief, cover me." Said Munro and he switched to the Tetryon Pulse disruptor and fired the secondary mode just to the side of the fence. The bolt bounced off the wall and into the node destroying it and deactivating the drones and forcefield. Chang looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Nice shot." He said. The team again continued on eliminating any Borg that came at them. Eventually they reached another elevator that took them down to a walkway...


	24. Chapter 24 Covenant

Chapter 24 Covenant

The lift stops and the team steps off onto a short walkway that goes around an area that has some kind of gas or liquid in it. The team continues around, about halfway around some Borg beam in and are easily killed. They continue into another area with several smaller inlets. The team clears this area of Borg drones. They get on another lift and descend. Again the team is forced to fight off not only drones beaming in but drones that were regenerating in their alcoves. Once the area is secure they get on yet another lift and go down. Munro notes a plasma conduit next to a grating as they go down. When the lift stops six more drones beam in and are promptly cut down by automatic rifle fire. The team secures the hallway but they are blocked from progress by a green forcefield. Munro remembers the plasma conduit gets back on the lift and fires at the conduit with his phaser from below. The conduit explodes, destroying the grating. Munro pressed the button on the lift and as the lift ascends he jumps into the crawlway protected by the grating. Figuring that there is probably a distribution node controlling the forcefield he creeps forward until he finds it hanging from the ceiling. He pulls his phaser out again and destroys it. Then he crawls back to the end and jumps down. The team emerge into a large open area with some kind of…thing hanging from the ceiling. They are surrounded by regenerating Borg.

"What is that?" says Munro as they walk onto a platform in the center of the room.

"The Vinculum. It is the hub through which all Borg thoughts are processed and organized. It creates order out of chaos." Seven responded.

Suddenly the Borg regenerating activated and several more beamed it but did not approach. The team was suddenly enveloped in a forcefield. Seven straighted, then turned to the Chief.

_"We are the Borg."_ She said

"She's turned on us!" said Jurot.

"Jurot no! The Vinculum must be controlling her." Said Munro

_"Master Chief SPARTAN-117 of the Starship Voyager. You are the leader of your unit."_ She stated.

"Yes I am." He replied

_"We wish to negotiate."_

"Negotiate?!" asked Munro

_"You and your team will be allowed to leave this vessel with the isodesium you are attempting to retrieve."_ Continued Seven

"Sounds good, what do you want from us?" the Chief replied.

_"We have assimilated information from this unit detailing your previous encounters with Species 8472."_ She said

"Species 8472!" said Munro

_"This vessel was engaged in combat with Species 8472, who had infiltrated our vessel. The Forge probe attacked us during this conflict. Upon destruction of the probe we were transported to the Forge. As were several of Species 8472."_

"I don't like where this is heading…" said Jurot

_"Despite our adaptations, Species 8472 has remained resistant. We assimilated your Lt. Foster to gain information that may be of use in protecting the cube from them. However, they stole the isodesium and have been using it as an energy source. They are reproducing rapidly. We cannot contain them."_

"I see. And you want us to stop them for you?" asked the Chief

_"This unit has memory of specialized nanoprobes developed to eliminate Species 8472. You will use these to eradicate the infestation." _

"They must be crazy to think we would help them." Commented Jurot

"Why shouldn't we just leave you here to kill each other off?" asked Munro

_"You have only two options. Accept or be assimilated."_ She said as some drones began moving towards the group.

"Well I guess if you put it that way. Alright we'll do it." Said the Chief

_"You will proceed through this route to Quaternary Environmental Control Chamber Nine-Alpha where you will find Species 8472's lair. Their resistance quotient is extremely high."_ She said

Suddenly Seven stumbled and touched her head. "Seven are you-" The Chief started.

"The Vinculum has released me." She said

The extra Borg beamed out and the team moved off the platform to the right and followed the corridor until they found a blue forcefield. "You can't trust a Borg. They've double-crossed us before." Said Jurot. "That may be so but the isodesium is beyond the area of infestation. We would have had to go through it anyway." Seven replied. The Chief noticed a control panel on the wall to the right. "Seven, do your thing." He said.

"How are we going to take them out with these weapons? Species 8472 can regenerate pretty fast." Said Chang as Seven was working the nearby console.

"Since our last encounter with Species 8472 I have modified our weapon designs to be effective against them. I believe that your projectile weapons should be sufficient against them." She replied

And with that the field deactivated and the team moved to eradicate an infestation…


	25. Chapter 25 Infestation

Chapter 25 Infestation

The team crossed the threshold into Species 8472's territory. The blue forcefield reactivated behind them. The Chief gave a hand signal and they moved forward. Some 8472 came at them but were quickly brought down. UNSC weapons seemed to be effective against them as Seven of Nine had believed. A little further on a wall on their right broke and more 8472s came out. Bullets flew and the monsters dropped like flies. The team moved on clearing out more areas until they came to a large area with two catwalks. There was a hallway on the other side with more 8472. The Chief noticed that there were many Borg drones cut in half and lying on the ground, some still moving. They advanced across the catwalk, through a hallway into a large room where a large firefight appeared to have taken place. Sliced Borg drones were everywhere and there were holes in the walls from weapons fire.

There were more 8472 in this room, but they were all cut down. Some tried to come from behind but the team's motion sensors, a copy of the Chief's motion tracking system picked them up and they were able to avoid the ambush. They went through another hallway and found themselves on the other catwalk. More 8472 attacked, one swiped at Munro scratching him some. The Nanoprobes in his suit prevented the 8472 cells from eating away at him but never the less he spotted a health terminal across the way and asked the Chief to cover him. Munro quickly recharged his suit and met up with the team. They went down a short hall with an elevator at the end. Two 8472 beings jumped down from above and were quickly cut down. The team got on the lift and Munro hit the panel. The lift raised one level. They saw a long catwalk ahead with a door on the far end. There were eight 8472 beings left, one by one they were cut down with short bursts from assault rifles, compression rifles, and I-mods. As they got close to the door it opened and they saw the isodesium they wanted but when they entered the room some Borg beamed in.

_"You will be assimilated."_

"Wait a minute, we negotiated, we had a deal." Said the Chief.

_"Irrelevant, you will be assimilated."_

The Borg came closer and the Chief gave a nod to Chang. Chang hit some buttons on his forearm. Back in the area with the Vinculum, there was a small spacial charge on the platform directly beneath it. A moment later it exploded taking the Vinculum with it. The destruction of the Vinculum caused a cascade in the Borg cube. The team felt the explosions rocking the cube. The Borg attacked at that point and everyone went to projectile weapons, cutting Borg down by twos. Five more drones beamed in but were still no match for tried at true UNSC weapons. A moment later no more drones beamed in and the Chief contacted Voyager.

"Voyager, this is SPARTAN-117 and Blue team we have the package and are ready for extraction."

_"Acknowledged, initiating transport."_

"Beam myself and the isodesium directly to engineering." Said Seven.

Seven of Nine and the Isodesium disappeared in blue light and a moment later the rest of the team did the same. Meanwhile internal explosions threatened to rip the cube apart. But it stubbornly held together, however the green lighting normally emanating from a cube went out. Life support had gone down. The Cube was now derelict.


	26. Chapter 26 R & R

Chapter 26 R&R

One Spartan and three Starfleet officers appeared on the transporter pad. Lt. Tuvok was there and greeted them as the transport sequence completed.

"Seven of Nine beamed directly to Engineering with the isodesium. If Lt. Torres is correct, Voyager should have power restored within a day or two. The Hazard Team has proven itself to be a valuable asset. You are all off-duty until further notice. Mr. Munro, I must commend you and your team on the rescue of Lt. Foster. He is in sickbay and is likely to recover. You all have some holodeck time. I suggest you use it." He said.

The Chief and Munro followed Tuvok out of the transporter room and went to the armory. Cortana and Oviedo were working on a new weapon.

"Chief, Munro, over here. Come look at this. We managed to modify the Rocket launcher UNSC forces use and give it replication capability. It doesn't use the magazine replication system the smaller weapons use but it runs on the same energy as Federation weapons but takes a lot more energy. We've converted it to one barrel, and it used the Federation energy to replicate the rocket. The rocket itself has a lock-on feature, though from what I know of this galaxy you probably won't need it that much. To recharge your energy just go to an energy terminal and activate your suit. Chief, we'll need to modify your suit to recharge your energy since it can provide such energy. We've created a holodeck simulation to test it. Feel free to test it. If you like it then we can use it on the next mission…if there is a next mission." She said

Telsia walks out of the holodeck at that moment carrying the UNSC Sniper rifle. She sees the Chief and Munro and approaches them. "Chief, this rifle is great; it doesn't take as much energy as the compression rifle's sniper mode. I think if we added a silencer to it, the rifle would be just great. She turns to Munro, "Alex, meet me in the mess hall after you're done with the holodeck ok?"

"Sure." He replies

Munro and the Chief both grab rocket launchers and go into the holodeck. Cortana starts the simulation from the armory. The scenery changes around them, from yellow grid-lines to an open area with forests off to the left and right. Suddenly they find themselves under attack by Covenant Banshees. "Take cover!" yells the Chief. They both dive behind some boulders and wait for the ships to pass over. Munro and the Chief take aim, lock-on and fire. The two rockets hit their targets from behind, destroying them both. Munro noticed that his Federation weapon energy was depleted a full twenty points. Then they see several Wraith tanks coming at them.

The Chief and Munro pop up and take more shots at the tanks. One rocket is sufficient to destroy them. The Chief was impressed, to say the least, normally it takes maybe two or three rockets to destroy Wraith tanks. _Oviedo must have changed the warhead from high explosive to photonic. _He thought. After some more attack waves by Covenant troops the simulation ended. Munro invited the Chief to the mess hall but he declined. As Munro left, the Chief said to the Computer. "Initiate program, Battle of Reach." He said the scene changed once again and he found himself on the _Pillar of Autumn._ _This time it'll be different._ He thought. _This time, we're going to win._


	27. Chapter 27 Visual Confirmation

Chapter 27 Visual Confirmation

Munro walks into the mess hall to find Telsia at the counter near Neelix. Apparently she had just walked in too.

"Well hello Ms. Murphy, what can I get for you today?" says Neelix

"Hmm. How about some Tarkalian Wine?" she replies

"Excellent choice." He said

"Oh hey Alex." She said

"Hi Telsia." Munro replies.

"I guess we're pretty much out of the woods now. Tuvok sounded pretty pleased, I guess he's warmed up to you some."

"I don't know about that."

"Well he just has to get to know you better."

"You know a couple of times there I really thought you might not make it. I'm glad you did." She said

"Me too."

"So….I was wondering-" she started

"So how's the Tarkalian Wine, I was told 2245 was an excellent year." Neelix said, interrupting her thoughts

"Oh, yes its good thanks. Well…I have to go take a shower…see you later Alex." She said

Some of the other crew spotted Munro and congratulated him on a job well done.

"Hey Munro, nice work on the Borg ship we all owe you one." Said Tom Paris.

"Good work Ensign, your team really pulled through." Said Chakotay.

"Ah! Ensign! I hear you've become quite the hero. It must have been fascinating, the Etherians, those strange scavengers and those pesky Borg. If you ask me your in line for a promotion. I do hope that isodesium does the job every system on board is low on power, including the replicators." Said Neelix

Munro walked around some more and talked to some other crewmen. He was talking to Chang when another crewman pointed out the window.

"Hey…what is that?" she said

"What? I don't see anything." Said another crewmen

"Out there…in the debris….see it?" she asked

"Nah that's debris." Replied the crewmen

"No it's getting closer…look!" she replied

"Hey yea…I see something moving way out there." Said Csatlos

"It looks like some kind of ship." Said Neelix

"That thing is coming right for us." Said Paris

"Whatever it is....it doesn't look friendly." said Chakotay

"Harvesters…." Munro whispered

_"All senior personnel report to the conference room."_ Cortana's voice came over the comm. Chakotay looked to Munro.

"Munro, you better come too." He said

He and Chakotay left the mess hall and entered a turbolift. A moment later they were on they were on their way to the bridge…


	28. Chapter 28 Offense

Chapter 28 Offense

In the conference room, Tuvok, B'Elanna, Paris, Harry, Janeway, Munro, and the Chief were seated at the table.

"Does anyone have any idea what this thing is?" asked Janeway

"I believe I do Captain. The most logical presumption would be that the Forge has sent a Harvester ship to…disassemble Voyager." Said Seven of Nine

"I was afraid that's what you were going to say." Replied Janeway

"Combining the records Seven obtained from the Borg ship…I would concur with Seven's appraisal." Said Tuvok

"Wait a second…didn't one of those ships tear up a Borg Cube?" commented Paris

"Yes, the Harvesters appear to attach themselves to the stranded ships and use massive claws to literally tear the ship apart. The Harvester aliens meanwhile, invade the ship, and plunder equipment and crew. The effect is utterly devastating." Replies Tuvok

"Great! Thanks for the pep talk." Says Tom

"B'Elanna, how soon will we get the warp drive and defense systems back online?" Janeway asks

"Not soon enough Captain, the isodesium is helping but it's still going to take several more hours." B'Elanna replies

"I'm open to ideas, anyone?" The Captain asks

"I thought I saw something in the Etherians records about some sort of 'Gunship' that's stranded here too." Said Ensign Harry Kim

"Yes the technology is consistent with that of Species 1567. They were engaged in a long range war in which they sent out giant automated dreadnoughts to destroy enemy outposts. They possessed impressive firepower." Replied Seven

"Captain, I've just reviewed some of the sensor data from the Etherians, there is what appears to be a UNSC ship in the debris here with us. Don't ask me how thats possible because I don't know how that could happen but I did a quick scan and the MAC gun is still online and has one round left. It's a small ship, a frigate. But if we can board it and the 'Gunship' Ensign Harry is talking about then we'll have two rounds to put into the Harvester ship." Cortana put in

"Life signs on either ship?" Janeway asks

"None detected on the gunship, but we've detected some kind of life form on the UNSC Frigate, but I can't identify it." Said Tuvok

"I can't see any better option, Tuvok, you Munro and the Chief put together a plan of action for the Hazard team. But fast, we don't have much time." Said Janeway

With that the Hazard team itself assembled in the briefing room. Tuvok was standing to the left while Munro, Cortana and the Chief were on the left side. Tuvok was briefing the team on the gunship.

"The dreadnought appears to be a giant automated weapon of mass destruction. There are only a few identifiable areas of the ship. This front area seems to be the control section. There is a barrel section seven hundred meters long." He said

"Seven hundred meters!?" said Telsia

Another team member whistled in awe.

"The rear sections seem to contain the ammunition, power and propulsion systems. Our objective will be to reach the control section and fire the weapon at the Harvester ship." He continued

"How do we know this thing still works?" asks Liz

"We do not. We have detected an active power source and the vessel does not seem to be significantly damaged. If fact we believe the weapon has never been fired. However as our sensors can barely penetrate the ship's hull, caution is recommended." Tuvok replied.

"As you can see, we've found a tear in the hull…" Munro began

"Whatever did that could…" whispered another crewmen

"We should be able to transport directly into the ship through this breach, saving us the time of having to shuttle over. From here it's only a short stroll to the control center here. Myself, Chang, Telsia, Chell, and Csatlos will beam in and escort Tuvok to the control room."

"Sounds like pretty heavy escort for a derelict ship." Said Csatlos

"We're not going to take any chances with this one. If all goes well, once we get Tuvok into the control room, he will fire the weapon at the Harvester and there will still be a Voyager to come back to. Any questions? No? There are two parts to this mission though. Team one consisting of the people I just mentioned will be going to the gunship. Team two, which the Chief will choose shortly, will be accompanying him to a UNSC Frigate we found in the debris field. The Magnetic Accelerator Cannon appears to be operational and there is at least one round left in the chamber. The Chief, Cortana and his team will beam aboard, power up the MAC cannon and wait until we've fired our round at the Harvester. If our round destroys it, everything will be fine. If it doesn't then we'll have a second shot to fall back on. Any questions? Chief? Have you selected your team?" Munro asked

"Yes, I have, Liz, Rick, Jurot, Michael and Oviedo will come with me to the Frigate." The Chief said

"Alright everyone, you have your orders, gear up and report to the transporter room. Both teams are going in heavy so grab plenty of ammo. Dismissed." Said Munro

Everyone grabbed their helmet because it appeared that both ships were void of atmosphere at the beam-in point. Everyone also grabbed more weapons and more ammo. The resident weapons experts managed to modify the combat shotgun used by the UNSC to have replicate-able ammo. They simply added a small power source with a button on the side so whenever the person is out of rounds in the chamber they press the button, wait two seconds then pump the mechanism and they're ready to go again. The Chief grabbed a battle rifle, shotgun, MA5C, Rocket Launcher, and pistol. He also grabbed a double handful of replication clips. These clips gave him as many rounds as the maximum amount he could normally carry. For example, before Voyager, he could only carry a maximum of six hundred rounds for his MA5B assault rifle. Now if he carried ten of the modified clips he now has six _thousand_ rounds to kill enemies with. Same with the pistol, battle rifle, and shotgun.

Ensign Munro and his team beamed out first. Then the Chief's team beamed out….


	29. Chapter 29 The Breach

Chapter 29 The Breach

Six Starfleet officers materialized in what appeared to be a shuttle-bay in the dreadnought. One jumped, testing the gravity which was a little light to say the least.

"Gravity's a little light here. Should have brought gravity boots." Said Telsia

"Power to this area must be partially out." Said Chell

"What are those?" asked Csatlos referring to some strange craft in the bays.

"Looks like fighters." Said Chang

"Fighters? I thought this ship didn't have a crew." Said Chell

"Maybe they're automated." Said Telsia

"We do not have time for idle speculation. We should proceed." Said Tuvok

The team moved along a catwalk until they came to a large door. There was a control console near the door but it wouldn't work.

"The door won't open. Like I thought power is out." Said Chell

"It is likely we would be blown out through the hull breach should we open the door just yet. We must restore the environmental integrity of the hanger bay before we continue." Said Tuvok

"It looks like there is a computer console on the upper level. Maybe we could restore power there." Said Chell

"Mr. Munro, find a way up there and see what you can do." Ordered Tuvok.

The elevator was out so Munro jumped onto some crates and worked his way around the edge of the bay, getting higher and higher until he was even with the upper level. He then leapt across the small distance from the ledge he was on to the upper level. Then he went to the console and pressed some buttons. A containment field activated over the hull breach and oxygen started to flow into the bay.

"A containment field…." Said Csatlos

"Environmental settings are normalizing…" said Chang

"Good we can take these helmets off." Replied Csatlos

"No, leave them on until we reach the control room and I can restore environmental integrity to the entire vessel." Ordered Tuvok.

Munro got on the elevator directly behind him and it brought him down to the first level. He met up with his team just as Tuvok had Chell open the door.

"Mr. Chell, you may now open the door. Mr. Munro, lead the way." Said Tuvok

Munro did that leading the team through a large hallway that went left and then came to a T-junction. One side was a dead end with several crates. The other held a door with a control panel next to it. Tuvok was about to order Chell to open the door when a squeaking noise came from behind the team. Chell turned and fired his weapon. "Harvesters!" he screamed. The team opened up. After a few shots two small parasitic creatures lay dead, with several phaser shots burned into them.

"That's a Harvester?" asked Csatlos

"I don't know…it looked bigger before we killed it." Said Chell

"Let us hope Mr. Chell, that you do not mistake one of us for a Harvester." He pointed to the control panel. "Mr. Chell, if you would." He said

Chell approached the panel, brought out his tricorder, pressed some buttons on it and the panel and a moment later the door opened. It appeared to be a lift of some sort. Munro got on the lift first, followed by Chell, Chang, Telsia, Tuvok and Csatlos. He pressed the button and the lift began to ascend…

The Breach Part 2

The Master Chief and his team materialized in a dark hallway on the UNSC Frigate they detected. Jurot immediately had her tricorder out scanning for life-signs.

"Switch to night vision, full spectrum enhancement. Jurot scan for life." Said the Chief

"Nothing in our immediate area, but I am picking up some kind of signature, I can't make any sense of it though." She reported.

"Cortana, where is the nearest access panel where I can plug you into the ships systems."

"The only access port on a ship this size is the bridge. Right now you're near the cryo chamber. I've put a nav point on your HUD, follow it to the bridge." She said.

"Alright team, move out, formation Beta to the nav point, stay sharp." Ordered the Chief.

They were halfway there when they were attacked…


	30. Chapter 30 Command

Chapter 30 Command

The lift stopped at the top level. The control room was just down the corridor ahead. The team moved forward cautiously. As they turned a corner they saw about two dozen scavengers trying to get the door open. The team opened fire, threw some grenades along with a flash-bang and eliminated the remaining scavengers quickly. After securing the room they noticed the blood on the walls and floor.

"What were scavengers doing here?" asked Chang

"Looks like they were trying to get into the control room…couldn't get this door open though." Said Chell as he pulled out his tricorder and got to work on the door.

"See that you fair better Mr. Chell." Said Tuvok

"What a disaster area!" said Telsia

"Maybe the crew made a last stand against the Harvesters here." Said Chang.

"Let us hope the control room is in better condition." Said Tuvok

"Looks like they put up a fight." Said Telsia

"Not that it did them any good." Said Chang

The door creaked open.

"That was fast." Said Telsia

"I wouldn't be much of a technician if I couldn't open a door." Replied Chell

The team rushed in weapons at the ready, but the room was empty…and untouched.

"Hey this room looks pretty much untouched." Said Csatlos

"The Harvesters must not have made it this far. The crew must have stopped them." Said Telsia

"But it cost them their lives." Replied Chang.

"Chell, seal the door in case there are more scavengers." Ordered Tuvok

A moment later "All set here." Replied Chell.

The crew began working on and deciphering the language on the control panels.

"These controls appear to be operational." Said Tuvok

"Looks like we have plenty of time to spare." Said Csatlos

"Finally, something went as planned." Replied Telsia

"Environmental integrity has been restored. You may now remove your helmets." Said Tuvok.

"I found something…looks like an audio log." Said Chell

"Can you play it back?" Munro asked

"Yea…I'm processing it through the translator now."

_Help me! Help me! AHHHH. They're tearing through the hull. Our weapons are useless I can't- AHHGGG. The defense systems are cut off; we're going to be slaughtered. No! NO! Please get back AHHGGHGG. Somebody help us please they're killing us all. Tearing our ship apart, they're unstoppable! AAARRRGGGHHH!_

Tuvok cut the sound from the log. "Distractions are not going to aid us in achieving our objectives."

"That must have been the Harvesters." Said Chell

"Mr. Chell, control yourself." Ordered Tuvok

"They're going to tear Voyager apart!" replied Chell

"That precisely what we are here to prevent. However, there has been a setback." Tuvok said

"Oh no." replied Chell

"Guess I spoke too soon." Telsia said

"I can aim the gunship and fire it from here. But the loading mechanism seems to be malfunctioning; the charge will have to be loaded manually." Said Tuvok

He brought up a schematic of the ship on what appeared to be the main viewscreen. "Ensign Munro, take a small team to the barrel here, and ride the maintenance tram to the end. The plasma focusing router, here, is misaligned, cutting off power to the firing mechanism, you will have to adjust it. Then make your way down to the firing chamber. Once there, you have to load the energy round into the firing chamber. When you've loaded the charge, I will then be able to fire the gunship." Said Tuvok

"Alright, Chang, Csatlos, you're with me. Chell, you and Telsia stay here." Ordered Munro

"Whew! I thought he was going to pick me!" said Chell

"Hey don't worry the ship is deserted. It should be no problem." Replied Csatlos

"I have disabled all the security locks on the lifts and doors in the rest of the vessel, you should have no difficulty in proceeding from here." Tuvok said

Part 2

"Keep your head down! There's two of us in here now remember?" yelled Cortana over the sounds of intense combat between his team and a large group of scavengers. They were using energy grenades, which drained his shields too low. The Chief ducked behind a cross brace, letting his teammates return fire and his shields to recharge. "Flash-bang out!" yelled Biessman as he tossed the grenade ahead. At the same time, crewman Liz threw a couple of frag grenades. The flash-bang went off first disorienting and blinding the scavengers, they didn't see the frag grenades landing in their midst and thus couldn't throw them back. The frags detonated and killed a good portion of the scavengers. The Chief and his team rushed the remaining scavengers, killing them quickly.

They were right outside the bridge when another large group of enemies came at them. These were not scavengers; these enemies were crablike and scuttled toward them on six legs. However, they were vulnerable to bullets and received a great amount of them from the team as they held their position. Just as quickly as they appeared, the crabs disappeared. The team turned its attention to the door to the bridge. "Cortana can you open this door."

"I think I can, hold on." She replied.

The door creaked open and the team rushed in and secured the room. The Chief had Cortana reseal the door after them. Then he inserted Cortana into the control matrix.

"Cortana, make sure the MAC gun still works and see if there is any information on those crab-things that attacked us." Said the Chief

"Aye aye Chief one moment. The MAC gun still works, although there is only one round in the chamber and we should still have sufficient power to charge the cannon. I found a log from just after the ship got here. It looks like the scavengers that raided this vessel were captured, at least the ones that survived were. Chief, those crab-like things we fought outside the bridge….those are Harvesters." Said Cortana

"Are there any other life forms on the ship? Survivors from the crew maybe?" asked Jurot

"I'm not picking up any UNSC neural signatures. But I've got something…it's from the security cams on the lower decks in one of the armories….Chief…you're not going to like this." She said

One of the monitors flipped on a display an image of the lower decks. It showed several dozen balloon-like organisms that seemed to scurry along on tentacles of some kind. There were also humanoid forms and the bigger forms also know as carriers. The Chief recognized the life-forms immediately and his blood ran cold. "The Flood. Cortana seal the lower decks. Are they anywhere near critical equipment?" asked the Chief

"No, they seemed to be contained in this one armory. I'm checking the other cameras to see if they are any more Flood on the ship…there don't appear to be any more although several cameras are not working."

"Alright, Charge up the MAC gun, let's be ready in case they need us, and open a comm. channel to Voyager."

"Channel open."

"Voyager, this is Red team, we've encountered scavengers and harvesters. The MAC cannon is operational and being charged. Be advised, this ship is contaminated with flood, recommend destroying the ship as soon as power is available."

_"Acknowledged Chief, can you describe the harvesters? Are they humanoid?"_

"Negative, they are crab-like running around on six legs; suspect they use the front two for attacking. They don't appear to carry ranged weapons. Probably use swarm tactics."

_"Got it Chief we'll be ready just in case. Blue team has reached the control room of the gunship, but the gun itself is malfunctioning, they've sent a team to correct the problem. Our sensors indicate that the Harvester is only five hundred million kilometers from us. Standby to fire."_

"Acknowledged, MAC gun charging, estimate gun readiness in…" he looked to Cortana

"About five minutes Chief." She supplied.

"Five minutes." Completed the Chief

_"Acknowledged."_

"Cortana, use the thrusters and move us to get a target lock."

"Aye Chief, firing maneuvering thrusters…done. Target locked, MAC gun ready in four minutes thirty seven seconds."


	31. Chapter 31 Primary Encounter

Chapter 31 Primary Encounter

The lift stopped and the door opened. Munro, Chang and Csatlos stepped cautiously into a hallway. As soon as they stepped off the lift, the control panel sparked and exploded.

"Well I guess we won't be going back this way." Said Csatlos

"Doesn't matter. As soon as we're done, we're beaming outta here." Replied Munro.

The team continued down the hallway until Csatlos spotted something on the wall.

"Hey what's this?" he asked.

"Don't touch anything." Munro warned.

But it was too late as Csatlos backed up a head-like thing detached from the wall and floated in front of him. It stared at him for a second then went around the corner and attached itself to a larger robotic body, with six legs and what looked like some kind of weapon or tool underneath the 'chin'. The robot opened fire immediately and the team was forced to take cover.

The team returned fire but soon realized that bullets were having little effect.

"Switch to energy weapons." Ordered Munro as he switched to the compression rifle.

The others did the same and after combining their shots disabled the robot. It detonated after a few seconds. "It must have an auto-destruct of some kind, whenever it is too badly damaged it shuts down and explodes." Said Chang.

"We'll have to be careful not to be too close when we destroy them." Replied Munro. He then switched to the Compound Grenade Launcher, Chang switched to the Tetryon Gatling gun and Csatlos to the scavenger rifle.

The team moved forward again and encountered more of the robots. Munro used the grenade launchers secondary fire to kill the robots in one shot and save energy at the same time. After clearing the hallway Tuvok hailed them on the comm. channel.

_"Mr. Munro what's happening down there. I read a power surge a moment ago."_

"This ship isn't quite as dead as we thought sir." Munro replied.

_"There were no indications of such a defense system here. They must be controlled from a different part of the ship."_

"We'll just have to be careful."

_"Agreed, Tuvok out." _

The team found an elevator, got aboard and Munro pressed the button. The lift descended to another level. When they got off they found themselves on some catwalks, with defense turrets that turned on them automatically. Munro took out one directly to their left and Chang and Csatlos took out a couple of the small robots to the right. The catwalks branched off to the right and further on to the left. To the right was a gate or something which prevented them from getting on the next lift. Munro spotted a control panel on a lower level of catwalks. He took his team and continued straight until the catwalk turned left. There was another turret on the wall and Munro quickly took it out again. There was what appeared to be a lift by the wall. Munro stepped onto it and it took him down to the next level. As he descended Chang warned him "Be careful down there Munro."

When the lift stopped Munro stepped onto the lower catwalks. He followed it back around the corner and had to jump a small gap in the middle of one of the sections of catwalk. After that the catwalk split, going left and right and continuing straight into a wall. To his right was yet another turret so he took that out and hit the control panel to the left. The gate on the first level of the catwalk dropped allowing access to the next lift. Munro rejoined his team and the continued to the next level.

The lift raised one level and they killed two more robots. The next lift was directly ahead and there was no other way to go so Munro hit the panel to the right of the lift and they boarded it. The lift ascended to the next level….


	32. Chapter 32 The Skirmish

Chapter 32 The Skirmish

The door opened and the team was immediately fired on by a robot. But as his teammates opened fire Munro saw one of the flying robots fleeing the hallway, figuring that they control the bigger bots, Munro fired once, twice, stopping it in its tracks. It shook violently and exploded as the bigger robot also exploded. There were two more robots around the corner and the team eliminated those as well. There was a door to their left and one straight ahead. Munro went through the door on the left.

There were _four_ of the robots this time. They were deactivated but as soon as Munro stepped into the room, four of the smaller flying robots came down from the ceiling and dropped into slots on the bigger ones activating them. Munro quickly switched to the grenade launcher and used its secondary fire to destroy the robots with a single shot each. Once the room was secure he looked around. It appeared to be the control room for the robots. _Too bad the Chief and Cortana aren't here. I'll bet she could turn them off, _Munro thought. He tried a couple of control panels but nothing happened. Munro returned to the main hall and continued with his team through the next door into another hall with several of the robots.

Munro was again able to take them all out with single shots from his grenade launcher's secondary fire. His team went through the door at the end of the hall. The room they emerged into was larger, with a hollow structure going through the middle of it with what appeared to be a plasma tube inside it. There were three health terminals but none of his team needed them. The other door was locked but a small flying robot flew past them out of nowhere and dropped down a lift tunnel. They heard lift ascending and prepared to fight another one of the robots. But this one was different. It was bigger, much bigger and it had claws and a bigger gun on it too.

As soon as the lift stopped Munro hit the plasma tube behind the robot blowing the casing and allowing the plasma to flow out in a single direction towards the robot and wall. His two teammates ducked for cover as the robot tried but failed to move out of the way of the plasma. The robot fell to the floor and detonated a few moments later. The team secured the rest of the room but found no other enemies. Munro and his team were on the lift a moment later.

"Looks like the only way to move on is down this lift to where the robot came from." Said Chang right as the lift began to descend…


	33. Chapter 33 Defensive Measures

Chapter 33 Defensive Measures

The lift stopped one level below. The team moved ahead through a large door into a cargo area. They quickly destroyed the two small robots waiting for them and also a variation on the flying robots they had seen before, different from the ones that plug into the walking robots. These flying ones were circular, like a saucer and had laser-type weapons along with small rockets. "Careful, those marked crates are explosive!" yelled Chang as the last robot died. The marked crates were a kind of tan color compared to the white of the other crates. Just before exiting the cargo room Munro picked up something off the floor.

"What'd you pick up?" asked Chang

Munro scanned it with his tricorder before answering.

"Some kind of welding tool; looks like it uses a beam of pure anti-protons. I'll bet it makes a decent weapon." He replied

"I'll say." Commented Csatlos

There were two robots around the corner, the smaller walking ones. Munro fired the dreadnought weapon at them. The beam of pure anti-protons ripped through the robots in seconds, disabling and destroying them in seconds. A large door opened with more robots in the next room. This one had turrets, one of the small robots and two of the large 'war-bots'. Munro fired the weapon again destroying the small robot, one of the larger bots and a turret. His teammates fired on the other large war-bot and after quite a few shots it finally went down. But before they could breathe yet another turret opened fire. The team took cover behind some crates and Munro yelled "Cover me!" as he ran to a terminal on a crane of some sort. He hit the panel and the crane inched forward until it hit the support pillar for an upper level, knocking it over and destroying the turret in the process.

With the room empty of enemies the team went up what was now a ramp to a higher level and went through a door. There were two small robots waiting for them and Munro again destroyed them quickly with the weapon. They moved on through another door to their left. It led to the upper level of the first cargo area. They were attacked by more robots, including the flying ones with weapons. Munro, with the dreadnought weapon killed everything in the immediate vicinity of his team as they moved along the upper level.

There were two more small robots, which they killed, in front of a lift that took them up to the maintenance tram. As his team got on the lift Tuvok came over the comm. "Excellent Mr. Munro. You are approaching the barrel, the tram should be nearby, take it down to the plasma focusing chamber. You must hurry." He said

Once the lift ascended a level the team double-timed it to the tram. They ran the width of the barrel on a catwalk to the other side and boarded the tram. Munro hit the button and the tram was off…

Part 2

The MAC gun on the frigate was charged and ready to fire, Cortana had a firing solution prepped and was constantly adjusting and readjusting the frigates position in order to lead the Harvester ship. So why did the Chief have a feeling that something bad was about to happen?

"Cortana, can the Flood live in vacuum?" asked the Chief

"Yes, for a limited time I think, the combat forms probably longer but the carrier and infection forms wouldn't last long." She replied

"Hmmm, I wonder…Cortana you said the only Flood on the ship were in those armories. If we blow those armories will it damage the MAC gun any."

"Probably so I wouldn't recommend it. Oh snap! Chief, take a look at this." She said

The viewscreen switched to a security camera it showed Flood, lots of it.

"Where is this camera from Cortana?" asked the Chief

"Deck 1, in the hallway where we beamed in. They're headed this way." She said

"How many? And of what type?"

"From these images I'd guess a few hundred combat forms, a few dozen of the carriers and up to a thousand of the smaller infection forms." She replied

"I'll take care of them. The rest of you stay here. I've done this before, don't worry, Biessman, set up some of your chain guns behind the door to the bridge. If they get past me, you'll have to stop them long enough to let Cortana fire the gun, set the self-destruct and beam back to Voyager. Don't come after me, that's an order." Said the Chief

"Good luck Chief." Said Biessman

"I'll keep an eye on you from here Chief and try to warn you if the Flood try to flank you." Said Cortana

"Thanks now open the door." Replied the Chief

The Chief stepped out with the Assault rifle in one hand and a photon grenade in the other. He set the grenade on the deck by a bulkhead and set it to motion detection detonation, lots of motion. He pulled out some replicated anti-personnel mines and put them on the deck as well. Then he sprayed a full can of C7 foaming explosive around a hallway near the bridge. He set several more traps for the Flood before taking up a position near the door to the bridge. Then he waited…


	34. Chapter 34 Attunement

Chapter 34 Attunement

The team moved forward until they came to an impasse. Three vents to their right spewing a gas of some sort. There was a lift directly ahead and a crawlway behind and to the right of the lift. "Whoa." Said Csatlos, "Careful…that looks like superheated ion gas…would sear the flesh right off your bones." Warned Chang. "Great" he replied. Munro went past the lift and crawled into the conduit behind the lift. Two parasite creatures were waiting for him at the far end; a single shot from his pistol was enough to silence both.

He looked around the corner and saw a wall turret and a small robot in what looked like a maintenance area of some kind. He could also see where the gas was flowing from. On a hunch he pulled out the dreadnought weapon and destroyed the robot and turret, and then he stepped out and hit the pump for the ion gas. After a few seconds of fire the pump blew. Then Chang came over the comm. "_Hey Munro, whatever you did worked. The gas has stopped venting._" Munro crawled back out and met his team as they went under the now sealed vents. There was a wall to the left but the corridor went to the right as did the team.

Munro took out a warbot with the modified rocket launcher. As soon as he did though four hatches on both sides of the corridor opened up and the smaller maintenance bots came out and attacked them. Energy bolts from compression rifles hit the robots with a vengeance and a plasma grenade thrown into the mix took care of the rest. Weary of more ambushes the team pushed on.

Going through the door ahead they met another turret and two more maintenance bots. On the wall to the right and up ahead were some plasma tubes. Munro hit both of these with his phaser releasing a burst of plasma which destroyed the enemies. It also forced him and his team to hit the deck lest they be incinerated like their enemies. They went through another door which led to a long corridor with yet another large door at the end. Before their door even closed the one at the other end opened revealing a warbot. Munro quickly let loose a rocket, but before the rocket hit its target _another_ warbot came at them from the right. Munro ducked a swing from its big arms and rolled to the side and came up with a plasma grenade in his hand. With the warbot busy with his teammates he took the opportunity to stick the grenade on the back and near the joints of the warbot. The grenade exploded taking out the warbot. Csatlos quickly took out the flying attack bot hovering behind them as well.

Munro could see through the side of the corridor a large area with a beam of plasma hitting a door. Tuvok came over the comm. _"You are in the plasma focusing chamber…do you see the problem?"_ he asked.

"I see it…it's defiantly misaligned." Replied Chang.

"How are we going to fix that?" asked Csatlos.

"I think I see some computer consoles on the other side." Replied Chang

Munro saw and destroyed the four maintenance bots in the lower area of the chamber. He saw a few bots on the other side and took them out too. The team continued down the original corridor through the door at the far end. The next area was strange. There were platforms floating in midair. "The gravitic plating in this area mustn't be fully charged." Said Chang as Munro took out a flying bot coming down on them. Munro was able to jump up to the next platform easily due to the low gravity. He went from one platform to the next until he got to the top. There were two maintenance bots on either side of the space. Munro took them both out then took a running jump to get across the chasm. He hit a button on the other side to lower one of the platforms. His team got on it then it came back up. Munro nodded and they proceeded to the door but it didn't open.

"The door is locked sir." Said Chang.

"Tuvok said he disabled the security locks…too bad Chell isn't here." Replied Munro

Chang took out his tricorder and scanned the door. "There are some micro fissures in the door's structure…I think I can blow it." He said. Chang pulled out a charge, put it on the door and armed it. "Take cover." He said. The team backed off and the charge blew a hole straight through the door.

"Good work Chang." Said Munro

"I wouldn't be much of a demolitionist if I couldn't blow up a door." Replied Chang.

The team continued forward through another door and killed four more maintenance bots, went down a lift and killed three more bots. They went through a large door and killed one regular bot and a flying bot before Munro hit a control console near the plasma stream. The stream moved away from the door and locked into the correct position. _"The plasma-stream is realigned…well done. Now proceed to the firing chamber and load the charge."_ Said Tuvok over the comm.

The team boarded a lift and Munro hit the panel. The lift moved down at an angle toward the lower level…


	35. Chapter 35 Array

Chapter 35 Array

The lift stopped and the team stepped off. Munro took care of a small robot in a corner. As they approached the wreckage a door lifted and two war-bots stepped out and attacked. Munro quickly switched to his grenade launcher and hit both bots three times with the secondary fire. They moved on and encountered another pair of robots and a warbot which they destroyed. The team proceeded down the lift to a large chamber with a chasm and a bridge. There were rods extended from the ceiling they were radioactive so the team went around a corner where they destroyed two deactivated war-bots, preventing them from being used.

The team got on another lift which ascended one level. They battled more robots before securing the area and going up yet another lift. The team was attacked by three of the armed flying robots but they didn't last long. The team advanced until they came to a control console with a screen. It showed static but as they got closer it cleared. The video was of the chamber they just came from. Munro pushed a button and the rods lifted, making it safe to cross. But as they team turned to leave, three small bots attempted to cross the walkway and be in a position to ambush the team as they came down the lift.

On an impulse, Munro lowered the rods again. The heat from the rods destroyed the small robots. But the war-bot was too big and just waited across the bridge. Munro retracted the rods again making it safe for the team to cross. The team headed back down to the chamber again battling more robots. When they got to the chamber the war-bot was still on the other side. Munro switched to the rocket launcher with its anti-matter warheads. Aiming carefully a tone sounded when he got a lock and Munro let fly both of the rockets. The two missiles hit the robot hard blasting it apart. Munro hit the button on the side of the launcher triggering the ammunition replication sequence, then switched back to the dreadnought weapon he found earlier.

The team crossed the bridge carefully, keeping an eye out for more bots. The wall straight ahead of them held a surprise as well in the form of two wall-mounted turrets which the team quickly destroyed. The team turned left and killed two each of the small robots and the larger war-bots. Another left-hand turn brought them to another room full of energy rounds. Tuvok came over the comm. right about then "_Mr. Munro, you are in the storage chamber. The energy rounds for the weapon should be there._" He said

"Here is one. But how do we get it to the firing chamber?" asked Chang.

There appeared to already be a round ready to go, it sat on a sled that hovered above a lift. Munro hit a console in front of hit which lowered the lift with the round. It also opened a door with another lift, which the team boarded and joined the energy round in the lower level. There were three wall-mounted turrets waiting for the team. They quickly took them out and a forcefield blocking the path of the sled with the energy round deactivated. But before it could get far another forcefield blocked its way. Then there were four more turrets to destroy which they did quickly. Quickly Munro realized that destroying the turrets deactivated the forcefields. In the next section he let his team handle the three small robots that came out of the wall while he shot the turrets. The next section held more turrets and a couple of plasma tubes. The tubes were positioned in such a way that when they blew they took the turrets on the far side with them. Munro smiled and blasted each tube, destroying the turrets and deactivating the last field.

_"We are running out of time Ensign. Load the charge now or Voyager may be lost."_ Said Tuvok

"I'm loading it now." Munro replied as he walked up to a terminal and pressed the button.

_"That would be highly advisable Mr. Munro."_

"Lock n' load Commander." Said Munro

"I am initiating the firing sequence; prepare to beam back to Voyager." Said Tuvok

He team waited for the tingling sensation of transport.

The dreadnought charged its main gun and fired.

As did the abandoned UNSC frigate's MAC gun.

The energy round hit the starboard side of the Harvester ship, disabling its claws but not doing any hull damage. The MAC round hit on the port side, knocking out some of its engines. But before either round hit the Harvester managed to breach Voyager…


	36. Chapter 36 Invasion

Chapter 36 Invasion

The Chief waited for the Flood to come. He could hear the distant thuds of explosives, mines and booby-trapped grenades. Before any of them got close though, the comm. came online.

"Chief, this is Cortana, the team aboard the dreadnought reports that they're ready to fire."

"Acknowledged, I'm falling back to the bridge. No contacts yet." He relied.

As the bridge door closed behind him he heard the scream, turned and closed the door in the face of dozens of Elite combat forms. He could hear their scratching against the door.

"The dreadnought has fired." Cortana reported

"Fire the MAC." The Chief replied.

"Rounds are on target, but the Harvester ship still there. It was only disabled."

"That will have to do. Chief to Voyager, beam us out of here now." He said

"Acknowledged. Standby."

The Chief had just grabbed Cortana's chip when the self-destruct went off beginning at the rear of the ship and working its way forward. But even before the explosions got halfway across the ship the team was already disappearing in blue light…

Part 2

Munro, Chang and Csatlos appeared in the same transporter room as the Chief and some of his team.

"Where is everyone else?" asked Chang

"We took some damage and had to beam you back separately. The Harvester ship was only disabled but now they're trying to board us." Said the transporter Chief

"Thats one tough ship but at least Voyager is still in one piece."

Out the door he said "This way come on!"

He sprinted down the corridor to the armory where the doctor was treating several patients. "If you need medical attention just come back here." He said

Munro, the Chief and their teams restocked and rearmed themselves with rapid-firing projectile weapons, grenades and sidearms. The transporter operator was waiting outside listening to reports of the battle going on. "The Harvesters are almost through come on." He said again sprinting down the corridor. But before he got to the door at the far end, the wall exploded throwing him to the ground. The Harvesters boiled through, Munro and the Chief opened fire immediately before they could get to the crewmen. It was a small swarm before no more Harvesters came through. Meanwhile Chang had cleared out the Hazard team locker room and briefing room. The Chief and Munro went through the hole in the wall into a cargo bay, through another hole and into a set of corridors surrounding a set of crew quarters. Several Harvesters were trying to gain access to them; one crewman was behind a small crate firing at passing Harvesters.

The Chief and Munro cleared two corridors, then the crew quarters which had been breached from the other side, they then cleared another corridor. Munro stepped through a door onto a walkway above a cargo area swarming with Harvesters. But before he got very far the walkway collapsed forcing him to the edge near the door. Luckily the door was open and the Chief was able to grab him and lock the door open. From their position they were able to snipe the Harvesters with battle rifles and take out swarms with grenades but they kept coming.

Then from the other side Rick Biessman stepped onto a ledge. "Thought you could use a hand…or am I still suspended?"

"The more the merrier Rick!" replied Munro

"That what I like to hear!" he yelled as he unleashed a flurry of led into the swarm of Harvesters below.

After a few more grenades and a rocket or two from Rick's side, the Harvesters were gone from the cargo area. With caution, the Chief and Munro jumped down to the deck and made their way across the bay onto a partially functional lift and joined Biessman. They proceeded down a corridor clearing Harvesters until they were at the breach itself. "Everyone alright?" asked Munro

From behind a couple of turned over tables Neelix and Tuvok emerged. "We do not require medical attention. Your assistance is much appreciated Ensign." He said

"I'll say! Any later and we might have been a Harvester snack." Said Neelix

"Munro to bridge, the invaders have been eliminated." He reported

"Good work, we'll get cleanup crews down there on the double." Replied Janeway

"I can't believe the aliens survived the hit from the dreadnought _and_ a UNSC frigate." Said Munro

"It would have been much worse had we not disabled the Harvester." Replied Tuvok

"Not that that's gonna make anyone around here feel any better." Said Neelix

"What do you mean?" asked Munro

"Let's just say that as ships' morale officer; I've noticed people are a little on edge from constantly being on the defensive for so long. I just hope we get out of here soon" Replied Neelix

"I know how they feel, SPARTANs were created to be offensive weapons, but more often than not we were tasked with defending an area, which of course limited our capabilities. That and for most of the Human-Covenant war the rest of the UNSC was on the defensive the majority of the time, morale among the troops was very low, only where SPARTANs fought did regular troops have high morale." Said the Chief.

"Tuvok, Ensign Munro, Chief, report to the conference room in half an hour." Said Chakotay's voice over the comm.


	37. Chapter 37 Decisions

Chapter 37 Decisions

**Bridge Deck: Conference Room**

"The isodesium is working; environmental controls and most critical systems will be online soon. But I don't know if we'll get full power back." B'Elanna reported

"How long before warp drive? I want to get Voyager as far away from this deathtrap as possible." Asked the Captain

"I might be able to get it up and running but, I can't guarantee it's stability with that constant power drain from the Forge's dampening field. The isodesium is helping but it's still going to take several more hours." She replied.

"Harry what about sensors can we-"

"Wait, aren't we-" Munro began

All eyes turned to him.

"Go ahead ensign, what's on your mind?" asked Janeway

"Well aren't we going to counterattack?"

"What?"

"I mean are we just going to sit here and wait for them to attack again or are we going to strike back?"

"I don't intend to leave Voyager a sitting duck ensign. Maybe you weren't paying attention just now but we're doing our best to get out of here."

"Mr. Munro, you were invited to this conference as a courtesy, the Captain has rejected your proposal." Said Tuvok

"Captain, I'm just saying what everyone is thinking."

"Alright ensign, just what is 'everyone thinking'?"

"Well it's just that, people are tired of being on the defensive."

"I have to agree, I've talked with some of the crew, morale is low, and they feel vulnerable."

"The best defense is often a strong offense."

"What are we supposed to do without engines and weapons? Drift over there and use harsh language? That thing's outer defenses could cut Voyager to ribbons."

"Not every problem can be solved by force Ensign. I would have thought you would know that by now."

"And while we're sitting here licking our wounds the Forge could send another Harvester ship."

"All the more reason to get repairs done sooner."

"But what if the repairs can't be finished because of that dampening field."

"Captain, I know what constantly being on the defensive can do to troop morale, it is imperative that we either escape quickly, or go on the offensive, attack the Forge, destroy it if possible."

The Captain stood, walked to a viewport and gazed out at the stars.

"I understand…we're all feeling vulnerable. I'm not just Captain of this ship, I'm Captain of her crew as well. I can't ignore the morale of my people. If they don't get a chance to fight back…they might not have any fight left in them by the time the next Harvester comes. And I can't ignore the fate of the other countless victims this forge has taken…and the ones it's yet to take. We've been fighting so hard for our own survival we've almost forgotten our responsibility to the others trapped here…if we have a chance to stop this madness once and for all…we must take it. However…Voyager is in no shape to challenge the Forge. Mr. Munro, I take it you have a plan in mind."

"Yes I do…'Trojan Horse'."

"The Harvester ship!"

"Of course!"

"I can take a small team of my best people, we use the Harvester to enter the Forge and lower its defenses so you can bring reinforcements in shuttles. If we can shut down the dampening field, Voyager and the other ships should be able to escape."

"We don't have any idea what kind of internal defenses that thing might have."

"At the very least we can buy Voyager some time."

"Alright, Tuvok, Chakotay, Chief…Munro, let's put together a plan…it's time we brought the fight to our captors."

Later in the briefing room for the Hazard team Tuvok was telling them about the mission.

"Once the dampening field generator is down, we will evacuate the Forge and return to Voyager via the shuttlecrafts."

"Crewmen Jaworski, yes."

"Sir, how are we going to get the Harvester back to the Forge? We don't know how to operate it do we?"

"A science team has examined the Harvester ship and discovered an automatic recall system. The ship is programmed to return to the Forge on its own."

"Your team leader will now brief you on your specific mission objectives."

"The first team is going to be a small group: just myself, Telsia, Chief, Biessman and Chell. We will board the Harvester and initiate the auto-return sequence. We believe the Harvester will return to this area of the Forge, a docking ring of some sort, still under construction, apparently." He said as the screen behind him lit the appropriate section.

"Our scans indicate that the external defenses power grid is located somewhere in this area. After we shut it down, we'll call for the reinforcements. That's where the rest of you come in. Once we rendezvous, we will spread out and proceed down this main shaft. Hopefully, Cortana can locate the generator for the dampening field so we can destroy it, allowing Voyager to escape. Any questions? Liz."

"What kind of resistance are we gonna run into?"

"Honestly…we don't know. We presume there'll be more Harvesters over there and who know what else. We don't know anything about this Forge and who's operating it. But I expect pretty heavy resistance. Look…I know some of you must be scared…I know I am. But the Hazard team was created and trained for exactly this kind of dangerous assignment. We can beat this thing." He looked at the Captain

"This crew…has repeatedly surprised and impressed me over these past few years. Starfleet, Maquis and others…we've all come together and performed beyond the expectations of even the finest starship crew. I know you can do this. We will shut down this deathtrap."

"Alright, let's suit up and get going. My team: meet by the Harvester docking tendril in one half hour. Dismissed."

Half an hour later the advance team assembled outside the docking tendril. Munro nodded and the team went inside. But before Munro could follow, Tuvok rounded the corner.

"Come to wish me luck Tuvok?"

"Vulcan's do not believe in 'luck' Mr. Munro. However… your success is crucial…and, while I believe you will prevail, I hope that your mission does not encounter undue adversity."

"Thanks Tuvok."

"We will join you as soon as your team deactivates the outer defenses."

Munro nodded and went inside. Moments later, the Harvester withdrew its docking collar, turned and began limping back to the Forge. A docking bay door opened receiving the Harvester ship and its package…


	38. Chapter 38 External Stimuli

Chapter 38 External Stimuli

The team exited the Harvester ship and quickly secured the airlock, then moved on. There was no air outside the ship so the team left their helmets on. The squad moved forward and around a corner and found themselves outside. There were several 'structures' for lack of a better term connected to the side of the Forge. Below and too far to jump was another doorway but it was blocked by a forcefield. "Hey Chell, hope you're not afraid of heights." Said Biessman

"Why?...Uh oh." Chell replied

"Hey Munro, Chell is never gonna make it across. See if you can find an easier way down for him, we'll cover you." Said Biessman.

Munro nodded and the rest of the team fanned out along a walkway, everyone but Munro switched to sniper rifles and began taking out the few Harvesters in sight. Munro got onto a small cable and carefully walked down to the next walkway taking out a Harvester with his battle rifle. Carefully picking his way across the structures he found himself on a platform with a cover and walls. Unfortunately there was a turret on one of the walls which forced Munro to quickly fall back and duck around a corner. He switched to the compression rifle, eased around the corner and squeezed off enough shots to destroy the turret. Then he went back into the room and hit a control panel. From the side of the Forge a flight of stairs popped out. Chell and the rest of the team were able to descend rapidly to Munro's position. Chell immediately got to work on the forcefield and a moment later had it down. The team advanced down a small hallway to what appeared to be a dead end. There was a hole in the floor with some kind of beam in the middle. Chell pulled out his tricorder and scanned the beam.

"Looks like a dead end." Said Telsia.

"Wait…this is some kind of anti-gravity beam…we can ride this down."

"Are you sure?" Munro asked.

"Only one way to find out!" said Biessman.

"Does the Hazard team get hazard pay?" asked Chell

"Any team with you in it should get double Chell." Replied Biessman

"Ha ha."

Biessman approached the hole, looked down…and jumped. His descent was slowed enough to avoid injury but they heard an 'oof!' over the comm. "Come on in…water's fine." He said also reporting that the area below was clear. Munro jumped next, then Chell, Telsia, and finally the Chief checking their six o'clock jumped last…


	39. Chapter 39 Matrix

Chapter 39 Matrix

The team proceeded down another short hallway and crossed two thin girders going between two small platforms. They went through a door on the other end. Chell pulled out his tricorder and scanned the area. "There's atmosphere in here." He said. The team took their helmets off except for the Chief. "The security grid is up there." He said pointing to a circular platform. In the center was a hologram of the Forge. On the platform however were tall bipedal creatures with what appeared to be weapons grafted onto one of their arms. The other ended in just a large set of claws the Chief suspected could slice right through his armor and him. The team immediately fired taking down three of the aliens in single, three-round bursts, but the last one took cover above them.

The squad moved to the rear of the area, hitting a console that released two forcefields on the way. From two hallways came several more of the creatures along with a few Harvesters. The team quickly split into two and went both ways, clearing more hallway along the way. They went up a ramp and met each other at the top. There was another ramp with two turrets at the top which were quickly taken out. The team moved out onto the circular platform and took down the last alien. The Chief pulled Cortana's chip from his helmet and tossed it to Chell who held it out to the security grid console. "They don't have much in the way of encryption but it's just as hard to translate. I don't think I can shut down the defense grid without raising a bunch of alarms." She reported.

"Let me see…" said Chell. "I've got it! Cortana, access their security videos…record a few seconds….then link to the sensor grid and run it continuously." Turning to the team he explained. "By running an endless loop of current sensor data, the targeting computers will just extrapolate all of the ship's current movement."

"In other words the targeting computers will think they're just drifting normally." Said Telsia.

"Right when the reinforcements come, the targeting computers won't see them."

"Good thinking Chell. Cortana any idea where the dampening field generator is?"

"At the bottom of the central shaft. The shaft itself is not that far from here. I've already marked the location on the Chief's HUD." She said using the hologram of the Forge to highlight the area.

"Munro to Voyager, the defense grid is down. You should be able to bring reinforcements to the docking ring. But you'd better hurry we hit some pretty heavy resistance. We've located the dampening field generator, and the central shaft, it's on the lowest level of the central shaft."

"Understood. We shall be there as soon as possible. Rendezvous with reinforcements on one of the lower levels." Said Tuvok over the comm.

"Acknowledged, Munro out…alright let's get moving before more of those things show up. We can meet up with reinforcements on one of the lower levels." He said

The team nodded and went back down to the level below, another forcefield that blocked a hallway collapsed as they approached. The team cautiously moved inside…


	40. Chapter 40 Onslaught

Chapter 40 Onslaught

The team continued down a hallway that broke into a larger area then shrunk to another hallway. As they reached the second hallway, more of the bipedal creatures appeared from around the corner. All of them went down from a hail of bullets. The next area was blocked by a forcefield which only turned off to let pieces of debris pass through via gravity beams. Some of those pieces looked familiar.

"Those pieces of debris are from Voyager." Said Chell

"I'll bet the control for this forcefield is on the other side…wait here." Said the Chief.

The Chief approached the forcefield and waited for a piece of debris to come close enough to deactivate it. The Chief took one big step and was behind the forcefield before it reactivated. Biessman recognized a personal effect of his in the convoy of debris as the Chief approached the terminal on the wall to his left.

"Hey hey hey, what? That's my Nausican wrestling trophy! All right, now I'm really gonna have to teach them a lesson." He said

"Calm down crewman." Said Munro

The Chief hit the console and the forcefield deactivated allowing his team to join him. At the same time more Harvester and bipedal creatures came from a hallway near the other end of the room. The Chief turned and tossed a grenade, then put down three Harvesters with bursts from his battle rifle while his team finished off the bipeds. They went down a short hall to another area, this one with a large hole in the floor. The edge was ringed with the same red forcefields encountered earlier. The Chief and his team continued on briefly slitting into two teams to cover a shorter hallway. They met at the bottom. But before they could continue more bipeds ambushed them from behind.

After a short but fierce firefight the team went down an incline and turned right to a door. Then through the hall and down the right where a small squad of bipeds and Harvesters waited for them. The Chief nodded to Biessman who switched to the rocket launcher and put two rounds at the end of the hall, clearing the corner. As they reached the corner where two hallway met, they were again ambushed by Harvesters and bipeds. The team held them off just long enough to avoid hand to hand combat. Then taking extra care against ambushes they moved on down the corridor.

As they went through another door, more of the bipedal creatures dropped from holes in the ceilings. They dropped to the floor almost as soon as they the ground though. Moving on the team found themselves in a larger area with containers on an elevator. Inside those containers…

"Hey, check it out man. There some of those creatures in these containers. What's that all about?" said Biessman

"Who cares? As long as they stay in there." Said Chell.

"Hello…hey ugly, wake up!"

"Hey be careful." Said Chell

"Ah he's sound asleep. You're lucky he's in there." Replied Biessman.

The Chief, figuring the area for a good ambush site pointed to Telsia and Munro, then at the hallway they came out of and the one on the other side of the elevator. They took anti-personnel mines and put them on the floor at the entrance to their area. There were six stones in the room. The team moved behind those for cover. Munro went to one of the stones further back. There were two doorways behind him, each blocked by a forcefield. He got too close and they dropped triggering the ambush the Chief suspected would occur. Through each doorway came one of the bipedal creatures that immediately began firing at him. He turned and fired at the one directly ahead of him, then as that one dropped; he rolled and dove to the side coming up on his knee with a pistol in his hand. Six shots boomed from the powerful handgun. The creature took three in the head and three in the 'chest', and dropped like a rock.

Munro turned his attention to the rest of the team as the anti-personnel mines went off. Then assisted them in beating back the wave of Harvesters and bipeds. His team still intact the Chief hit a console built into a wall past the two doorways. An elevator descended but it was blocked by a forcefield. Which dropped three seconds later, the team boarded it, and then it raised one level. It seemed like a dead end. There were two hallways to either side but they were blocked by forcefields. The elevators with the containers also rose to their level. "Watch those containers, weapon fire could break them open and we'd have to deal with those as well." Said the Chief.

The team advanced to the end of the room. Then they came. "Man! Here comes some more." Said Biessman.

"Find cover!" shouted the Chief as he turned and provided as much cover as he could. Then he ducked behind a stone to let his shields recharge. "Grenades now!" he said. Four hand grenades rolled out from behind the stones. The creatures, either unfamiliar with them or ignoring them pressed their attack. The grenades exploded, taking many of them out, as Chell made a suggestion. "Sir! I think I can make it to that door and seal it." He said. Munro nodded then shouted "Everyone cover Chell, target any Harvesters that get close." He said as Chell rose and sprinted to the door with the lift. He pulled out his phaser and adjusted its settings. Then he began at the top, firing at the crease where the doors part, then descending to the floor. "I got it! You won't have to worry about that door anymore." He shouted as he sprinted back taking down a few aliens on the way and tossing a plasma grenade over his shoulder. The grenade took a Harvester and two bipeds in the explosion.

The firefight continued, bullets mixed with energy weapons, reminding the Chief of some of the battles he'd fought with the Covenant. "Darnnit, I can't get off a good shot." Said Biessman. The room was filled with a line of bipeds all firing their arm weapons. "This is it! I knew it! We're done for!" said Chell

"That's not helping Chell." Replied Telsia

"That's it!" said Biessman. He switched to the MA5B, rose on one knee and sprayed the area with bullets. The rate of fire from the MA5B combined with its powerful caliber ripped through the natural armor of the bipeds. They began dropping like flies. Rick dropped behind cover to reload popped back up and sprayed the area again. Telsia, Munro and Chell also caught on, switching to the MA5B, they rose in unison and sprayed the area, covering all angles. Unfortunately the six containers with creatures broke and those began attacking as well. The Chief dropped them all with pinpoint accuracy. More grenades went out, thinning the ranks of the aliens. They had missed one of the bipeds, in a corner, near Rick. It fired its arm weapon three times, all three shots hit Rick in the side boiling through the armor in his suit. "Rick!" yelled Telsia. She showered the creature in bullets as she ran to his side. More of the creatures appeared, distracting her though. But before she had even turned her attention, more rifle fire came from the side. More than her team could put out. She turned and saw yellow security crewman all with modified UNSC weapons pouring fire into the bipeds. Tuvok was leading a team, as was Seven of nine and Lieutenant Paris. The combined efforts of the advance team and three security teams stalled and eventually stopped fierce firefight that had been going on.

"Thanks Tuvok, we couldn't have held out much longer. Did all the boarding parties make it?" Said Munro.

"Yes, the defense systems did not fire. The Captain, Chakotay and others have boarded several decks."

"Good now we just have to find a way down to the generator and shut it down."

"Munro…he's dead." Telsia said as Jurot moved away.

"Dead? No… he can't be." Said Chell

"He saved us all." Said Telsia

"The good of the many outweighs the needs of the few. Mr. Biessman understood this. He will be missed. But we must continue with our operation. We need to divide up and find a way down to the dampening field generator. Mr. Chell, Ms. Murphy, I will require your skills." Said Tuvok.

"Right, Chang, Jurot, Munro, you're with me." Said the Chief.

"We should an open comm. channel for the remainder of the mission. Let's go." Said Tuvok.

As Tuvok's team left, the Chief and his team stood on the elevator where the containers had once stood. Unexpectedly, it began to descend. As it did so, a large door behind them opened. Beyond that was another door. The Chief, seeing no other way to proceed approached the door cautiously, expecting anything to be on the other side of the door…


	41. Chapter 41 Visual Magnitude

Chapter 41 Visual Magnitude

The door opened. Beyond it was a circular gap; it was the central shaft of the Forge. On the walkway going around the gap were several new aliens. Bipedal, thinner than the ones encountered earlier. They attacked with powerful blue rings emanating from points on their bodies. Luckily they were still vulnerable to bullets and went down from quick battle rifle bursts "What were those things?" asked Chang

"I…I can't read them…they must be shielded from my telepathic abilities." Jurot replied.

The area was clear for the moment; a crane from the shaft lifted a container and placed it in front of the team. "This shaft it's full of those monsters there must be thousands of them stored in the walls…" she took out her tricorder and scanned the container. "This must be some kind of…incubation chamber."

"It's a whole army of these things…for some kind of invasion…there's enough here to take a whole planet." Said Munro

Then a deep, scratchy voice echoed through their minds.

_**"Not just a planet an entire Galaxy! These 'Reavers' are the ultimate killing machines. We have spent thousands of your years, abducting species from all over this galaxy. Our probes have found worlds; your puny Federation would never dream existed. We've tested, and dissected them all, combining and manipulating their DNA. We have grown the ultimate warrior race. You and your Galaxy shall fall to the Vorsoth.**_

As the voice talked about the 'Reavers' images of the bipedal aliens fought earlier popped into their heads.

"No! We will stop you!" yelled Munro, struggling to even get the words out.

The creature laughed. _**"Pitiful creatures! To the Vorsoth you are nothing more than an infestation. An annoyance to be crushed like a-"**_

The voice suddenly stopped.

"What happened?" asked Munro

"We Betazoids are telepathic. I was able to block the alien's voice…for now."

The Chief grabbed her arm and helped her up. "Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yes I…it just took a lot out of me. I'll be fine." She replied

Munro tapped his combage. "Tuvok, this is Munro…we found the main shaft and just had some sort of…contact with the being who seems to be in control of this station."

_"Yes Ensign, we received the same message…we are still recovering from it."_

"They're creating an army of drones. They're just like the Borg."

_"Correction, the Borg seek only perfection. These Vorsoth seek to annihilate all lesser beings and dominate whole galaxies."_ Said Seven of Nine.

"Even worse than the Borg then." Said Jurot

"Or the Flood. Sir, recommend we destroy the entire station." Said the Chief

_"I concur Chief; my teams will start placing explosives. You and your team continue down the shaft to the generator. You have to destroy it before we can set off the detpacks. Voyager can then escape the region before the explosion."_

"Acknowledged. SPARTAN-117 out."

"Let's go." Said Munro

The team, now recovered from the alien's contact, continued around to the other side of the shaft. A door opened and six Reavers came out. Jurot threw a frag grenade which took three of them out. The rest dropped from several battle rifle bursts. The team then moved on through the door. They dropped two Reavers coming at them from either side then stopped more as they came from two corridors to the left and right. Even though there were forcefields blocking the way the alien's appeared to be able to pass right through them, similar to Borg drones and forcefields.

With the immediate area secure they got on a lift that descended one level.

As they descended Chakotay came over the comm. "_Chakotay to the Captain. We've placed some charges but we have injuries here. We're heading for the shuttles."_ He said

_ "Understood, we still have a few more to set."_ She replied.

With the comm. channel open the team could hear the sounds of intense combat between Starfleet troops and the alien Reavers. The team continued down the shaft getting on lift after lift, clearing level after level of enemies and descending deeper into the Forge…


	42. Chapter 42 Dissolution

Chapter 42 Dissolution

Munro went through the door first-then jumped to the left as two Avatars attacked with their blue circles. The Chief and Munro put both of them down, but there was a bigger problem…the half dozen Reavers on the level below were preparing to jump up to the team's level and engage in hand-to-hand combat. Thinking quickly Munro hit a switch near where the Avatars had died. A bridge extended, preventing the Reavers from jumping and allowing the team to cross the shaft once more. After they crossed, they tossed grenades down the gaps in the floor, killing the Reavers. They took out the few that attempted to jump to their level. With nowhere else to go the team jumped down to the level below, and proceeded to board another lift.

They heard the Captain over the comm. _"Janeway to Tuvok, we're evacuating, our detpacks are set and ready to blow."_ She said

_"Acknowledged Captain, we're en route to the shuttles ourselves."_ He replied

"Looks like we're almost to the bottom." Noted Jurot.

The lift descended one level and the four-man team took out three Avatars. Then proceeded through another door where they met and killed at least six Reavers, two of which came up via the lift. Those were put down with fast bursts of fire. They got on a lift and descended again. On the next level down, there were two Reavers on either side, and two Harvesters scuttling across the room. Jurot and Chang took down the Reavers, the Harvesters fell to battle rifle bursts from the Chief and Munro. The team cautiously stepped into the room- and shot two more Reavers hiding in the corners and two Avatars that came up on a lift. They got on the lift on the opposite side of the room and descended again. They killed two Avatars on that level then got on yet _another_ lift and descended.

The next level was the level above the generator; it was guarded by several Reavers and Avatars. Grenades flew, energy bolts and brass shells crisscrossed in a dazzling display. In the end though the Starfleet crew had won out and cleared the area. They got on the last lift and descended to the generator level.

"Munro to Tuvok, we've found the generator creating the dampening field."

\ "_Excellent Mr. Munro, destroy the generator and we will activate the detpacks. We will then start the evacuation._" Said Tuvok

"Understood." Replied Munro

"_Ensign. It is important that you succeed. All of Voyager is counting on you. Tuvok out."_ Tuvok said

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Munro whispered to himself.

"We're ready Alex." Said Chang.

"Alright, Cortana, any suggestions on how we shut this thing off?" asked Munro.

"I suggest destroying the four emitters; they're transmitting energy to the generator." She replied

"Ok, everyone go to phasers, pick an emitter, fire on my command." Munro said.

Jurot the Chief and Chang all picked their targets, pulled out phasers and stood by. Munro pulled out his own phaser, aimed, and said "Fire" the team fired as one, destroying the emitters and creating a feedback loop in the generator, which went up in flames.

On Voyager, the lights came on, power was restored and the ship set a course for the Forge. The Etherian ship powered up and followed. Other ships, either automated or still having crew aboard, found their ships able to power up, and moved out of the area and full impulse.

The team had already switched back to their primary weapons and reloaded before a door on one end of the room opened. A swarm of Reavers poured out. The Chief switched to the MA5C Assault rifle and hosed his side of the room with bullets. Chang and Jurot on the other side, were barely able to keep the herd of Reavers back. Munro and the Chief turned to help. The sudden flanking attack eliminated the rest of the attackers. The team quickly made their way out of the room eliminating two more each of Reavers, Avatars and Harvesters before meeting up with crewmen Murphy and Commander Chakotay.

"Chief! Alex! Over here" she yelled.

"Let's move it people!" yelled Chakotay.

The Chief, Chang, Jurot and Munro had just met up with the two officers when the being who contacted them earlier came back into their heads.

_**Insignificant creatures…you cannot stop us. This Forge is but the first of millions. We will launch the seed. It will grow into a new Forge and create thousands more! You have simply delayed the inevitable! The Vorsoth shall conquer your Galaxy, then countless others!**_

Before he could continue the voice stopped. "Jurot!" said Munro.

Chang was already by her side. "She blocked the voice again…it must have overwhelmed her." He said

"Alex, listen we've got to get out of here, the whole place is going to blow!" she said

"Come on let's go!" yelled Chakotay

"Chang, take Jurot, get her back to Voyager." Munro said

"Wait, what-? Alex where are you going?" asked Telsia.

"You saw the visions, all this is going to start all over again if I don't stop that seed." He replied

"You mean if _we_ don't stop that seed, you going to need backup. Don't argue I'm going. Cortana I need a countdown clock for until the seed is launched." Said the Chief

"One moment. Scanning…ok here it is Chief, you got fifteen minutes." She replied.

"Wait let us-" Telsia began

"No you've got to get Jurot back to Voyager, this is my decision now go." Munro said

"But-" the rest of Telsia's sentence was cut off as a large door closed on her.

The Chief pointed to a lift in the corner. "Over here." He said

The two men got on the lift. It ascended for once a few levels. There were two Reavers at the top. Both went down fast. They went down the hall and turned left. The Chief heard the feet of Harvesters scuttling along and had switched to the assault rifle. He hosed the line of Harvesters that came around the corner with bullets. A SPARTAN and a Starfleet officer rounded another corner to find four Avatars which went down from brass shells again. The two men got on another lift which again ascended. It took a long time…it was going to the top…


	43. Chapter 43 Command Decision

Chapter 43 Command Decision

A they ascended, Tuvok came over the comm. "Ensign Munro!...Ensign Munro acknowledge!...Master Chief! Respond! Ensign, you are violating direct orders!" he said.

Neither of the two men replied. The lift finally stopped and they stepped off. They were on the top floor of the Forge. There was a generator of sorts to their left and beyond that was a large arena. Munro and the Chief entered the arena the door closed behind them and locked. They found the creature that is in control of the station and telepathically controls his army. It was large, with several red eyes, six large 'legs', and several 'tongues'. It spoke, this time vocally

"Foolish humans! You cannot hope to stop the Vorsoth!" it said

"Who…what are you?" asked Munro

"I am the Vorsoth. I was created by the ancient ones! I shall carry out their programming! The seed will be launched to create a new Forge! We can never be stopped!" it replied

"Wait…listen to me…in your visions…I saw…this machine is thousands of years old! How do you know that your purpose is conquest? Your makers might have only intended to use you for research! They may have been explorers like ourselves!" suggested Munro

"What are you doing?" asked the Chief

"Starfleet General Order 1: Before engaging in combat with any species, any and all attempts to make peace must be made." Munro replied

The creature seemed to ponder for a moment then said "Nonsense! Our programming is clear! We are engineered for perfection! We are created to conquer!"

"But…through the thousands of years your…original programming may have deteriorated! Do you even remember who built you? Where did they come from? What did they look like? The race of beings who first made you might even be extinct!" Munro replied

"Silence! The Seed will be launched! You shall be destroyed!" it yelled.

Reavers, Harvesters and Avatars began to 'beam' in, in waves. Always one Reaver, two Harvesters and an Avatar. After a few waves, and taunting from the Vorsoth, four Etherians appeared in the center of the arena. _Friend Munro, we shall assist your struggle._ They said flying up to the gravity beam pushing the seed to the launching chamber. One more wave of troops came then the beam dissipated and the seed fell to the floor, breaking into a million pieces.

The Etherians descended in front of Munro and the Chief. _Seed stopped. Must leave, dangerous come with us!_ They said

"No!" replied Munro the Chief shook his head too.

"NO! the Seed! This cannot be! Impudent wretch! Relish this minor victory humans! For you may have stopped the Seed, but now I will show you just how insignificant you are!" said the Vorsoth.

The forcefield around him deactivated, and the creature detached himself from his 'throne' and jumped down in front of the two soldiers, creating tremors throughout the floor. The Chief and Munro backed off and switched to Rocket launchers. They're Rockets had built-in replicators with enough power for twenty rockets. They also had ten anti-matter warheads to use.

"Anti-matter first!" yelled Munro

Four anti-matter rockets flashed into the side of the Vorsoth creature. The attacks didn't seem to do much, just elicit more weapons fire from the Vorsoth's tentacles. Munro and the Chief, took cover behind some of the pillars. They reloaded and fired again, four more rockets. The two began to stagger their fire, instead of all at the same time. One rocket after another flashed into the being. The only respite for it was when they were reloading. At that point the creature attacked again, this time with a weapon that appeared underneath the two men and lifted them in the air. The fall is what would kill them. But the Chief's MJLONIR armor took the fall easily. But Munro's health display began to drop. "Cover me!" he yelled running to a nearby health terminal and recharging his suit. The suit injected pain killers into his legs and nanites regenerated his armor. The Chief meanwhile shot rocket after rocket until his anti-matter warheads were out. Munro followed suit and ran out shortly after the Chief.

The Chief and Munro switched to conventional explosives. Apparently the anti-matter warheads had done more damage than they thought. After two standard rockets the creature screamed and fell over.

With a weaker voice it said "Fools…this is just a minor…setback…for the Vorsoth…we shall return."

"We'll be ready for you." Munro replied.

Munro looked up, saw a large piece of the ceiling about to fall on him. But before he or the Chief could move, a transporter beam caught them both and they disappeared as the piece hit the floor.

Voyager swopped in, fired a pair of photon torpedoes at the lower end of the Forge's shaft. Then two more phaser bursts into the main section of the station. As Voyager came about the station exploded. On the bridge, two blue columns appeared, and from them came the Chief and Munro.

"Impulse engines are at full power Captain!" yelled Paris

"Keep pressing it Mr. Paris."

"The Forge has been destroyed." Reported Tuvok

"We made it!" yelled Paris

"What about the other ships?" asked Janeway

"Some of them made it out. Captain! I'm getting a message from the Etherians. They thank us for our help and are back on their way to their new home."

"Captain, I've got some readings on our position. We're still in the Delta Quadrant but we're over two hundred light-years closer to the Alpha Quadrant."

"So…we gained a few months. Not bad. Get us back on course for home Mr. Paris."  
"Looks like your plan worked gentlemen." Said Chakotay

"Yes, congratulations Munro, Chief, well done."

"Your performance was quite satisfactory. You appear to be injured. You should report to sickbay. Master Chief, well done." Tuvok said to Munro.

"Thank you sir." He replied.

The Chief pulled Cortana's chip out of his helmet and held it out to Tuvok. He took it and put it in a specially designed slot in his console. Cortana flooded into the computer system augmenting it. "Plenty of room in here still." She said

Munro reported to sickbay, the Chief went to the armory and took his armor off. Put his uniform on and went to his quarters…


	44. Epilouge

Epilogue

Later in the mess hall, Telsia approached Munro as he gazed out at the stars.

"Alex?"

"Telsia…hi"

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"What's a penny?"

"I don't know. Some old phrase I heard Paris say once. It was a nice service. For Biessman and the others."

"Yeah…for a funeral."

"You couldn't have helped them you know. You did the best you could. They knew the risks, they were professionals." She said

One of the Master Chief's lessons came to mind. _It is acceptable to spend lives to achieve an objective or win a battle. It is not however, acceptable to waste those lives._

"I know…but…when you disappeared on the Etherian ship, I told myself the same thing. It didn't make me feel any better than either.

"You can't bring them back. Don't live in the past look toward the future. You have a bright future."

"Do I?"

"Sure…trust me."

Chell and Jurot approached the two near the window. "Is this a private party or can anyone join?" he asked

"How are you doing Munro?"

"As good as can be expected, I guess."

The Captain, Seven, Chakotay, Tuvok and the Chief approached the group as well.

"Lieutenant Munro." Janeway said

"Those pips, suit you well. Lieutenant." Said Chakotay

"Thank you sir." Said Munro

"You both had us worried there at the end." Janeway said, glancing at the Chief.

"Mr. Munro and the Master Chief disobeyed orders and did not board the escape shuttle." Said Tuvok

"Sorry sir. There was something I had to do." Replied Munro

"We know Lieutenant. We all saw the alien visions. You did what you had to do." Said the Captain

"It was commendable. You were willing to sacrifice yourself for the whole." Seven of Nine commented

"As did the entire team, you all performed bravely." Said Chakotay

"The Hazard team has proven to be more valuable than we imagined. Starfleet just might adopt your idea when we get back Tuvok." Said Janeway

"Thank you Captain. But I think Mr. Munro and the Master Chief are most responsible for the success of the team. It took some time and not inconsiderable effort…but you have proven yourself to be an outstanding officer and a natural leader. As I always believed you would." Replied Tuvok

Munro, shocked at the compliment stuttered a bit. "Thank you sir. I was afraid you would think my decision was too…impulsive."

"Sometimes, Lieutenant, your 'gut instinct' is better than what logic and 'procedure' would suggest. Both are needed in a good leader; that is why I choose you to begin with." He replied

"Yes sir…I understand."

"Why Tuvok….is that a bit of pride I detect?" asked the Captain

"Surely Captain. There is no cause to insult me." Replied Tuvok

At that the whole group laughed. Even the Chief smiled.

After the party the Chief went back to his quarters and began working on a PADD. On it was a schematic for a new set of armor…


End file.
